stags, mermaids and midnight lilies
by lilytero
Summary: Lily glanced up to see James' smiling face a few inches from hers.'I really like the changes you did with yourself', he muttered and run his knuckles down her cheek.'You almost look pretty.'.
1. the invisible evens

Stags, mermaids and midnight lilies

**summery: after her parents were killed, lily lives in her best friend's house for the last five years. her best friends think she's great, while the rst of the school consider her as an outcast. between her friends, her midnight swims, her conversations with a real mermaid and school, lily must desguise herself, for the murderer is on her tracks. what happens when james potter, the most popular and hot guy in hogwarts, who prank and insult lily without mercy, finds himself attracted to a certain red-headed "mermaid" who appears only at midnight?**

**Disclaimer: you expect me to own harry potter? people come on! i don't even live in UK!**

chapter 1: 'the invisible evens'

_The house was black from the fire and smoke was still coming from the roof, like a reminder of what have happened, even if it occurred a few days ago._

_The twelve-year-old girl was standing in front of the smoking house with wide eyes full of tears. Mum… Dad… _

_She was left alone in the world, alone with her big sister._

'_It's all your fault!' she remembered her sister's hurtful yelling 'yours and your stupid world which you belong to! Because of you they are dead! Our parents…' she broke into sobs 'my parents…'_

Lily woke up with a start. She sat on her four-poster bed and rubbed her eyes with shaking hands.

_It was just a dream,_ she told herself firmly.

She lay back on her bed, breathing deeply. The alarm clock that was standing on the bedside drawer was showing her that it was only four in the morning.

"Hey" whispered a sleepy voice from the bed next to her "bad dream?"

Lily looked to the side and saw her best friend, Jessica Benory, looking back at her with one half-open eye. Lily smiled to her, and moved the curtains so she could have a full view of her friend.

"kinda" she answered back in a whisper.

"wanna talk about it?" Jess half smiled.

Lily sighted and shrugged "it was just the memory of the summer before second year, when I was standing in front of my house…"

At those words the smile disappeared from her best friend's face and was replaced with a frown. Jessica remembered what was in the dream as well, only because Lily was having it regularly and because she was present when Lily got the news of her parents' death.

"You don't still believe to that caw, do you? You know that it wasn't your fault"

Lily got up from the bed and started searching in her closet for her clothes.

"I know Jess, I knew it five years ago and I know it now" she sighted again.

"Good" said Jess satisfied and watched Lily choosing some baggy clothes for her to wear.

"Let me guess" another sleepy voice was heard "it's bloody 4 am, right?"

Lily stiffed her laughter so she wouldn't awake the rest of their roommates.

Her second best friend, Viviane Koryner, was stretching in her bed like a cat.

"Everything all right, Lily?" she asked with a little worried tone.

"Yes, don't worry, Vi'. You know me, once I wake up I can't get back to sleep" Lily answered, and took her wand and her glasses from a shelf.

"All the muggle farmers should dump all their roosters and take you instead" said Vi' "than maybe we can get some desent sleep around here once an' awhile"The girls burst in silent giggles until Lily saw that one of the other girls was starting to stir in her bed.

"We better be quite if we don't want to wake the slut and her friends" she pointed with her finger to the rest five beds in the dorm. "Get back to sleep, we have another three hours before breakfast"

"Yes, ma'am" Jess saluted and fell back to her pillow.

"Going for a swim?" asked Viviane.

Lily looked from the window outside. The skies were still dark, but she could see that they were starting to get brighter by the minute.

"Maybe later, it's too late to go for a swim now" answered Lily and went into the bathroom.

Viviane snorted in reply. She and Lily apparently had a different view about when it was too late or too early on the day. She curled under her blankets and fell asleep.

Lily closed the door behind her, and walked to the mirror. The moment she stepped inside the bathroom, the candles lit up and washed her body with bright light. She blinked a few times before her eyes got used to the sudden light, and she was able to examine herself in the mirror.

Her dark red hair reached her waist and was lying in a complete mess on her back and shoulders. Lily shook her head and watched her hair flying in every direction. She loved it when her hair was wild and full of curls, even if naturally it was straight. She took a long shower, changed and brushed her wet hair.

While brushing, she thought about what happened to her in that same summer after she lost her family.

She and her sister petunia, were supposed to fly to America to live in their aunt's house. But Lily refused. She didn't want to leave Hogwarts, which was like her second home, but she didn't want to live in an orphanage either. So after a lot of discussions, Jess's parents convinced the authorities to let Lily stay in their house and practically adopted her to the family. Jessica and her were best friends from the first moment that they bumped their trolleys on the train station. It was originally her idea, that Lily will move to live with her and her family and Jess's parents agreed at once.

Lily was happy to get a new family, especially so large, and Jess was thrilled to get a second sister. She smiled when she remembered Charley, Jess's brother which was now in his fourth year in Gryffindor, and the little 10 year old twins, Jaime and Julie, which were going to hogwarts next year.

Lily shook her head to clear her thoughts, and begun with her make over routine

She took her wand, pointed it to her hair and muttered _"orcarios"_. Strikes of dark color appeared in her hair until in a few seconds her hair was painted black. She continued to brush it until it was smoothly completely and tied it up in a tight ponytail. She took her big black-framed glasses and put it on her face, watching her green eyes turning into brown. Then she pointed her wand to her face and muttered another spell. Suddenly her soft skin and clean face was covered with pimples and moles.

Satisfied, she twirled in front of the mirror, checking that she didn't forgot anything.

She wore clothes that were three times bigger on her body and which gave her a look of a little chubby person, covering her long strong legs and flat stomach, which she got from years of swimming and running.

She smiled and bowed to her reflection while her eyes sparkled with laughter.

"I present to you, the "invisible evens"!" She straightened up and waved to invisible clapping.

It was all true. With this disguise that she wore, she has been the outcast in the social life of school for the last four years.

People probably wouldn't noticed her if she wasn't a prefect, the top student in each class, the marauders number one prank victim (after the Slytherins of course) and the fact that the two most popular girls were hanging with her regularly.

Nobody understood why Viviane and Jessica liked Lily in the first place. She was ugly, with _no_ sense of fashion, bookworm, cold, friendless, geek, loser, teachers pet…. The list was very long.

Most of the people ignored her presence, which was exactly what she wanted

She checked her disguise one more time and went out of the bathroom.

Her two best friends were sleeping deeply, and she looked at them with a little jealousy. She wished she could sleep like that, with no worries in life.

For the past five years five years, she could remember only few times when she slept without any dreams or better yet- nightmares.

She usually went to sleep at midnight and woke up four hours later, or she didn't sleep at all, and spend her nights swimming in the Hogwarts lake with Mell, or in Jess's pool if it was summer.

She got down to the common room while humming some song, and sat on her favorite couch while opening a thick book. It was almost five in the morning, she got another hour and a half before Jess and Vi' will get down .for breakfast.

It was just another regular day at Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry.

I mean, as regular as Hogwarts can be.

A/N: well to anyone who already read this chapter, i just wanted to say that i had to repost it. i read it again and found a few mistakes that i had to fix. i didn't change something big in this chapter, only a sentence or a word. hope it's much better. anyone who can find another mistake, PLEASE tell me about it. i'll appreciate it very much! i've almost finished ch 2 and hope to post it this week! R/R please, and can someone please tell me how to make that lovely line that seperate from the story to A/N?


	2. the redheaded mermaid

**ch 2 is here! thanks for everybody who reviewed! i hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**disclaimer: it's quite simple, every character that you recognize is not mine, every charecter that you don't recognize is mine.**

Chapter two: the redheaded "mermaid"

Lily walked down the staircase to the Great Hall when she heard someone calling her name. She turned around and saw a tall boy with sandy hair and deep brown eyes walking towards her.

"Hi Remus" she smiled at her fellow prefect. She watched him carefully, while he greeted her with "G'Morning Lily", noticing the tired lines on his face.

"Hard night, huh?" she asked him gently with a little smile, referring to the full moon that happened a night before.

Remus Lupin was a werewolf. She found it out in the middle of first year. They became close friends when she moved to Jess's house and was his next-street neighbor.

"Bearable" he smiled back "and you? Got any good sleep?"

She shrugged and a half-smile appeared on her face "five hours of sleep. New record"

They started to get down side by side while talking about more light subjects.

"Where Jess and Vi'?"

"They told me that they would meet me down at breakfast. Apparently there was some kind of a mess up in the girl's dorm. Something about Vi' throwing all Elany's beauty products out of the window" she chuckled softly when she remembered all the shrieks and screams that were coming from her dorm

"So... when are you going to ask her out?" she asked him with raised eyebrows.

Remus looked alarmed and she laughed when she saw him starting to blush.

"What do you mean?" he asked her carefully.

"Remus, today is the last day of school and tomorrow we all going home. I was just wondering if in the next two months you're going to make a move"

"What?" he asked confused.

Lily stopped in her tracks and looked at him, faking a surprised look. "You mean to tell me, that I didn't tell you that Vi' is going to stay over the summer at our house?" she smiled when she saw his face brighten with happiness. "But I'm warning you" she added with her finger pointing at his chest "that if you two are not going to hook up before our seventh year, I'm going to strangle you both". He laughed in response and said good bye to her before joining his best friends.

Students were already sitting at their house tables talking cheerfully with each other. Lily's gaze followed Remus to the far end of the Gryffindor table where it seems a bit crowded, as always.

She stiffened when she heard James's potter laugh.

God how much she disliked that kid! Next to him, petunia seemed like an adorable, sweet little girl, and that saying something.

She sat at the other end of the table and noticed with disgust all the girls that were sitting or standing near the marauders and flirting with them shamelessly, some of them sighing or blushing when one of the marauders winked or shot they famous winning smiles at them.

Lily was in the middle of her breakfast, when the owl post arrived. She looked up just to see her brown little owl- woodek- flying towards her. He landed on her shoulder and dropped the two letters in her palm. She stroked it thankfully and gave him a little of her pumpkin juice before he flew to the Owlery.

Seeing that it was sent by Erica, Jess's mother, Lily opened the first latter in curiosity.

_'Dear lily_

_This letter was sent to our house by muggle mail and it addressed to you from your sister._

_Now, before you'll open it I just wanted to mention and apologize for Julie opened the letter before I noticed and read it._

_But that's not all._

_Julie drew something on the back of the letter for, if I put it in her own words. "To cheer Lily up, because there is no way that I'm going to let that _

_giraffe-neck blond depress her"_

Lily smiled when she read that part. The whole family took it as a daily job to care for her, so naturally the four brothers and sisters despised petunia after she declared in her last letter that she won't recognize Lily as her sister anymore.

_"Again, I am sorry about the situation, for I know how much it bothers you that people are privileging in your personal possessions. _

_And just to remind you all, we will meet you three down at the platform. _

_Enjoy your last day of school!_

_Love Erica. _

_P.s. I'm glad that you decided to stay after all."_

Lily smiled warmly at the ending and put it aside carefully taking the next one.

Through the doors entered a group of girls. The front girl, who seemed to be the leader, observed the hall with narrow icy blue eyes. When it finally fixed on the marauders, her smile grew wider and she kept walking, her thighs swinging from side to side. One of her friends nudged her side and pointed towards the nearest person that sat on the table.

The front girl's face turned into a sneer as she watched Lily's figure sitting like a statue and staring in a letter wide-eyed.

"Oh look, its swamp monster Evens," she said aloud. Some people that heard her sniggered and some of the kids that sat in the nearest tables were watching curiously at the scene.

It wasn't new to them that Elany Pentale picked on Lily Evens every time she saw her, but it was still amusing. Amusing as to see as well Evens's reaction.

To everybody's surprise Lily didn't respond coldly as always but just sat there in her sit, and didn't move.

This reaction seemed to make Elany angrier.

She had three good reasons to insult lily today.

**First: **it made her feel superior than that bookworm loser when Jessica and Viviane weren't there to defend her. Or "it" as she liked to call Lily.

**Second: **she wanted to get James's Potter attention. James Potter was the hottest guy in Hogwarts that every girl fantasized about him.

**Third: **Lily Evens suffered a lot of pranks from the marauders, and everyone who treated Lily like a slug, was allowed to hang out with them.

"What's the matter? You didn't find any books that can teach you how to talk?" the girls behind her sniggered and it seemed that it awoken Lily from her trance.

"Huh? Did you say something Penthale?" asked Lily with a frown.

"Yes I did you-" but she stopped angrily when she saw that Lily's attention was slipping away again. "Hey Evens! Someone is talking to you!" she called loudly, making Lily look up to her again.

"What? Oh, good morning to you too Penthale" the people who watched burst in laughter, but Lily didn't pay attention to them and got back to the letter.

_'Jess is going to blow up when she'll find out' _she thought to herself.

"Get moving Penthale, or it's going to be _you_ who I'll throw out of the window the next time!" Viviane called when she entered the Great Hall with Jess behind her.

Elany turned around muttering something about "wasting my precious time with that nerd" and walked straight where the marauders were, her pack of girls behind her.

"Bitch" muttered Jess quietly sitting opposite Lily, grabbing a plate and putting scrambled eggs in it, while Vi' did the same and looked at Lily curiously.

"Who send you that letter?" she asked. This time Lily heard her and looked up her face motionless "Petunia"

Jess choked on her pumpkin juice, and looked at Lily in disbelieve "what that horse-face wants from you now?"

"Nothing really" Lily said in a light voice "she's just back in England-" "WHAT?" "And she's engaged to some type named Vernon Dursley"

Vi' frowned when she heard that "she's engaged? And she's inviting you for her wedding?"

"Are you kidding me?" asked Lily surprised "she sent this letter just to make sure that I _won't_ show up at her wedding. Here, read it yourself"

She handed the latter to Jess that seemed more relieved for some reason. After a few moments they both looked up.

"Well..." started Vi', unsure what to say "it's quite nicer than the last letter that you've got from her"

"Yeah, she only called you freak like...27 times. Compared to her last letter when she called you like what, 100 times?"

"120 times" lily said half smiling "I liked the last sentence in this latter: _"you're such a freak. You're the freakiest of all freaks, so don't you dare crush into my party, showing you're freakiest powers, and doing a freak show. And that include you're freakiest friends from your freakiest school!""_

The two friends laughed, relieved that Lily wasn't hurt from the letter "want me to burn it?" suggested Jess.

"I can't. Look at the back" Jess turned the letter and burst in laughter. On the other side was drawn a mermaid, with red hair and what seemed like green eyes. Above the drawing was said in big letters _"midnight_" and under the mermaid was written _"with all my love, Julie"_

"What can I say? I've got a talented sister" smiled Jess and handed the letter back to Lily. All three got back to their breakfast.

Lily opened the Daily Prophet when suddenly she felt something liquid going down her hair and people around her started to laugh.

"What did they do this time?" she asked boringly, turning a page with green fingers and long dark nails.

"Turned your hair to shining blue-green color, your skin to dark grey and your nails are twice longer" answered Vi' with a smile "I might add that its quite suits you" Lily suppressed a laugh and continued to read. "four minutes" she said only.

"Hi Jess, hi Vi', hi Lily! New hair style?" asked a male's voice. Lily looked up to see Jess's younger brother, Charley, looking back at her with interest.

"Yes" she answered, smiling. "I thought it would go perfect with my eyes. What do you think?" she lifted her glasses, her eyes turning to their original shade of green. Charley laughed in response "nice" he agreed. Lily put her glasses back on her face her eyes turning back to brown. "Two minutes" she announced.

Jessica and Viviane got off their sits "we're going to go and talk to those idiots" said Jess quietly to Lily.

"You don't have to" she answered looking up at them "it's anyway not going to last long"

It didn't seem that they've heard her, and she watched them going to the marauders. She shook her head slightly "one minute" she whispered to herself.

"Potter, Black, we need a word with you" said Jess sternly.

"Sorry love, but we're busy" answered Sirius, flashing towards her a dazzling smile, that the girls that surrounded them sighed dreamily.

Jess's eyes narrowed dangerously, and Sirius backend away slightly.

"Turn Lily back to normal!" commended Vi' angrily, looking at James.

"I don't think so" he smirked "the spell will only come off around lunchtime. until then..."

Lily heard him and smiled to herself "five seconds" she mumbled turning the next page indifferently. Her skin was turning now to pale green, and her hair was getting to dark green brown color.

"You look like Mell" commented Charley. Lily's smile grew wider when she heard that. "Well, she always said that I've got a part that is belong to the merpeople" she answered lightly._ "One..." _she thought to herself.

Suddenly her skin got back to its color, her nails shrank to their normal size and her hair was black again

"Everything back to normal?" she asked Charley, who nodded.

"Good" she said, adopting her cold attitude, now that people were staring at her. But it seems that Sirius Black and James Potter weren't thinking the same thing.

"How did you that?" asked an angry voice behind her.

"Did what, Potter?" she asked coldly, getting up from her sit and staring straight at his hazel eyes.

"That spell wasn't suppose to come off until the afternoon" continued Sirius Black.

"What spell?" she raised her eyebrows "look. As much as this conversation is interesting, I've got a class to go. Good day to you both" she said calmly and got out of the hall. Soon she heard hurried footsteps behind her. "Hey Lily! Wait up!"

"So" started Vi' questionably after she and Jess caught up with her.

"It's a new spell I found that change my hair color" smiled Lily, guessing what Vi' wanted to know "it's water proof, fire proof and spell proof. It seems to get rid of spells in five minutes. So because Potter and Black put only one spell on me..."

"Good one" laughed Jess "at least it shrank Black's and Potter's ego"

"You know as well as I am, that that is impossible" said Lily while rolling her eyes.

The three burst in laughter, before racing to their first class.

-Later that night-

Lily opened the door to her dorm and sighted with relief when she saw that none of the girls was in there. She didn't thought she could handle another humiliation.

"Lily! Oh my god... what happened to you?" asked Jess in shock coming out of the bathroom.

"Take a wild guess" answered Lily dryly, shaking the sticky green glue from her clothes. Jess looked at Lily, which was covered from head to foot in that thing

"Potter" she growled and took out her wand "he is so going to pay for this!"

"No. You're so not doing it," said Lily. In a frustrated sound she took out her wand and with a swish the substance was gone.

"See? No harm done. Besides, it's the last night at school and I've got more important things to do then hex Potter. Not to mention that he and Elany are not in the common room, doing you can-guess-what in one of Hogwarts cupboard"

Jess lowered her wand, looking calmer "when are you going to get back?"

"Three in the morning I think" said Lily, changing to something warmer to wear. She looked at the clock on the wall "almost midnight. See you around"

"Have fun" answered Jess smiling a little. When she no longer heard her friend's footsteps she raised her wand to her lips, smirking. "Well if Potter not around, than there always Black"

* * *

Lily hid her clothes behind a bush and stayed in a strapless and short tights. Her skin felt with goose bumps because of the cold air. And standing so close to the Forbidden Forest, didn't help her to feel less conscious about her surroundings. She looked from side to side carefully, trying to see and hear any sign of human in the area. She put down her glasses on top of her clothes and changed her hair back to normal

She took out her wand and pointed it to her body _"watrio"_ she whispered.

She felt the familiar tickle running through her body and jumped inside the freezing water. Her body adjusted quickly to the temperature and she could breath freely

_Like getting in a hot bath,_ she remembered her first thought when she first used that charm.

She dived under water and then up again, throwing her wet red hair to the back and then sighted quietly with satisfaction.

Lily loved to swim at night; it relaxed her from her daily troubles- "marauders trouble" if to be accurate. She swam deeper to the lake but not far enough from the ledge where she jumped.

Suddenly, she felt something grabbing her from the waist and pulling her hard in the water.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" she screamed before her voice muffled in the water. The thing that grabbed her, let her go and she swam upwards. She coughed and took deep breaths when she heard a cheerful laughter.

"Mell, it's not funny!" she half yelled, while rubbing her eyes to get rid of the water

"Yes it is" Mell continued to laugh, splashing water at Lily playfully.

"You almost gave me a heart attack," said Lily, now smiling and splashing water back at Mell.

Mell smiled, dived and reappeared behind Lily "I've started to wonder when you're going to visit me again" she said and dived again. Lily turned around just to catch a last glance at Mell's tail.

"Sorry" answered Lily when Mell appeared again above water "had a problem"

"Hmmm" nodded Mell, turning on her back and swimming, while circling Lily "that Potter, right?"

"Bingo. And you?"

"Lost my grindelaw pet"

"Again?"

"Well, it's only the fifth that my brilliant brother lost" answered Mell a bit bitterly "if I lost them, my father would go loosing bubbles around"

"Huh?" Lily asked completely confused. Mell scratched her face in thought "I think it means freaking out, in your words?" she suggested in a bit hesitation.

"Something like that" smiled Lily.

"But of course, my parents would _never _be angry with that little seaweed"

Lily laughed in response "the little merman of the family" she commented.

"Exactly" agreed Mell with her "so tell me, what that human did to you now?"

Lily sighted "it's a long story"

* * *

His arms circled her waist, getting her even closer to his warm body. She ran her hands through his messy hair, deepening their kiss, gasps of delight escaping her lips from time to time.

His hand traveled from her waist, down her thigh while he lowered her slowly to the ground.

_It was after all, his last day at Hogwarts, and he deserved some fun,_ his mind reminded him, _so why not do it with a popular and hot girl like Elany?_

"What was that?" asked Elany with a fearful tone. James heard it too.

"It came from the lake," he said in a voice no higher than a whisper. He got up quickly and helped Elany to get on her feet.

"Go back to the castle" he said, his eyes fixed on the forest where the scream was heard from.

"And what are you going to do?" she asked worriedly while buttoning her shirt.

"Going to go and see who screamed" he said shortly. He never liked to explain his actions to anyone, especially girls.

Without a last look at Elany, he ran to the lake, ignoring the fact that his shirt was open in front.

He stopped on his tracks and listened carefully. There.

It sounded like two voices that were talking. He got nearer, staying low behind the bushes and looking towards the lake. He saw two girls that were swimming in the water, one of them laughing.

"Hold on," said Mell, trying to control her laughter "he glued you to your chair?"

"Yes, it was after he gave my homework wings and I had to chase it all over the corridors"

"And then-"

"Exactly"

Mell roared with laughter, tears coming from her eyes.

"I'm glad that it amuses you" Lily said dryly leaning her head on the ledge.

Because of the distance, James didn't hear clearly the conversation so he just observed them.

The girl that was laughing had a dark green hair and pale green skin "mermaid" he muttered to himself and he saw that he was right when her tail appeared above water.

But his attention was drowned back to the second girl who was leaning on the ledge, smiling.

He never heard of a human that befriended with a mermaid before, so it meant that this girl was mermaid too.

She had a dark red hair that floated around her shoulders. He could see only from her shoulders up, the rest of her body was, to his displeasure, under the dark water.

"Well, you can't say that your day wasn't eventful, my dear midnight" said Mell sweetly.(a/n: midnight is Lily's nickname)

Lily groaned and sank lower in the water.

Mell laughed again and swam forward towards Lily when she froze. She gave a quick look at the forest and whispered "there someone here" before disappearing.

Lily turned around quickly and looked at the forest behind her, getting slowly farther from the coast.

James saw that the redheaded mermaid was swimming away, and not wanting to lose his chance jumped from the bush.

Lily stopped swimming backwards when she saw a beautiful stag jumping in front of her. She relaxed and swam slowly back to the ledge, leaning on her elbows, because the ledge was higher from the water level and there wasn't any bottom.

She stretched her hand and called in a soft voice "come here beauty. I won't hurt you. Come on..." the stag stared at her for some moments and slowly stepped forward to her stretched arm. Lily looked at it curiously. That stag seemed familiar for some reason...

-Flashback-

_A fifteen-year-old Lily swam on her back, enjoying the full moon light that sparkled on the water._

_She looked at the moon and sighted. "good luck Remus" she muttered looking towards the Whomping Willow._

_"Be careful!"_

_"Ouch! That was my foot!"_

_"Will you two just shut up? We're going to be late!" _

_Lily's eyes grew wider when she heard the voices. she looked towards the coast, but couldn't see a thing._

_Than suddenly three boys appeared from thin air, throwing down something that looked like a cloak._

_"Ready?" asked one of them a bit nervously._

_"Let's get it over with, I'm freezing"_

_Lily now recognized them at once. It was James potter, Sirius black and Peter Pettigrew._

_Her hand quickly covered her mouth to suppress her gasp. Instead of three boys, now stood three animals. A dog, a stag and what seemed like a rat, but she wasn't sure because the grass hid him well._

_The stag suddenly looked at her way and locked his eyes with her own until the black dog barked and the three animals disappeared from sight._

_Lily's head suddenly snapped to reality when she heard a load howl._

-End of flashback-

James looked at the girl, a bit confused when he saw her pulling back her hand quickly.

She stared at him with wide eyes.

"James potter?"

* * *

**A/n: you liked? hope so... well, if you liked than review please! if you didn't like it... well you can tell me where to fix by -cough- reviewing also...**

**thanks again for your reviews:)**


	3. revenge is so sweet

**A/n: chapter three is here, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: don't own harry potter, happy now?**

Chapter 3: revenge is so sweet

Lily watched with shock at the stag that transformed into James Potter.

"This. Is. not. Good" she thought to herself, panicking.

She pushed herself from the ledge quickly but James, with his quidditch reflexes caught her wrists and pulled her towards him. He was now on his knees and the moon was bright enough for him to look at her features, noticing her dark red hair and emerald green eyes that looked at him with fear.

"Let go of me!" she struggled with no success.

James smiled when he saw her trying to escape. He was much stronger than she was, and Lily, seeing his amused face felt her fear replaced with anger.

She stopped and gave him a look full of hate, which surprised him.

"Let go of me" she said in deadly voice.

"Only if you won't swim away," he said calmly.

Lily looked at him for a few minutes, feeling her wrists starting to throb painfully.

"Fine" she answered at the end and he freed her wrists from his clutch. She took the opportunity and swam quickly of the place but an invisible shield stopped her.

She looked back at James and saw him with his wand raised, pointing at her direction.

"You promised," he said simply. Lily slammed her fists against the barrier until she heard James laughing.

"It's a strong spell and it won't disappear with physic attempts"

"What do you want from me?" she asked with a little frustration, turning to face him

"That you'll answer me some questions"

"Like what?"

"Like how do you know who I am?" he asked with curiosity.

She almost laughed in response "who doesn't know you? You're _the_ James potter, the Gryffindor quidditch captain, the most popular, the selfish arrogant prat that almost every girl fall off her feet at the sight of you"

James's cocky smile that appeared at the beginning started to fade away at the end of her sentence.

He heard quite clearly the sarcasm in her voice and he looked at her with a frown.

_No girl talks to James potter like that, no meter how gorgeous she looks_. Said a voice in his head (that for some reason sounded a lot like Sirius)

"And how do you know about me so much?"

"I know everything. Look I answered your question now let me go!"

James raised his eyebrows, his confident smile back on his face "I don't think so"

Lily was ready to kill him on the spot. Not only that she has been through a _very_ long day and her relaxation was ruined, but worst of all, her biggest enemy was the one to catch her off guard and without her disguise.

"Why not?"

"You still hadn't told me what's your name"

Lily looked at him strangely. _He's got to be kidding me, _she thought.

"What's it to you?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well It's the first time that I meet such a pretty mermaid as you and I would like to know how to name you" he answered, flashing his famous smile at her.

Lily's eyes widened with shock "he thinks I'm what!" the corners of her mouth twitched until she couldn't control it anymore and burst in laughter.

James looked at her confusedly. It was the first time that his charm wasn't working at all.

Lily shook her head and dived.

"Wait!" he yelled leaning further above the water.

Lily heard him and swam back upward.

"What?" she asked leaning on her elbows. It was too late for her to notice that there were less than a few inches of space between their faces.

His eyes wandered on her face and then focused on her lips.

Smiling he said "I believe I deserve an apology or at least you need to give me something for insulting me like that"

Lily's mouth dropped a little from shock. She saw him leaning a bit nearer towards her, their noses almost touching and smiled a half-smile.

She leant on one elbow and ran her second hand through his hair "well" she smiled seductively, her finger touching slightly his face and drawing an invisible line on his jaw "if you put it this way..." she closed her eyes and sank slowly back to the water. James smirked and leaned even further, ready to kiss her.

When his lips almost touched hers, Lily suddenly opened her eyes, grabbed his shoulders and pulled him towards the water.

James fell, with a surprised yell and a loud SPLASH into the lake. When he swam back up again he didn't saw the mermaid anywhere.

* * *

Lily was swimming near the middle of the lake and watched James trying to get out of the water and failing miserably. She laughed quietly, knowing that he would probably spend the rest of the night trying to get to the coast. From years of swimming at the Hogwarts Lake she knew that the only way to get up to the ledge is only if somebody else would help to get up. Usually the giant squid did that because of Mell's request. 

"So this is James Potter?" whispered a voice near her. Lily looked at Mell and nodded

"The one and only"

Mell observed him for a second, smiling when he fell again to the water "he's quite cute for a human, no? Too bad he doesn't have a tail..."

Lily maid a sound full with disgust "oh please! Not you too!"

"JAMES!" somebody screamed near by.

Lily looked around and spotted a tall girl running towards James's figure that (again) fall to the water.

"Great" she whispered "now what?"

"Jamsie! Oh my god are you ok Jamsie?" Elany sat carefully on the ledge and peered to the water with a bit hesitation.

"What are you doing here?" James spat a mouth full of water "I thought you got back to school"

"And she suppose to be?" asked Mell.

"Elany Penthale" answered Lily frowning at the sight of her.

"Ahh, the pure-blood bimbo"

"Damn! My clothes are there and I can't let anyone else to see me like this"

"Don't worry," said Mell, putting a hand on lily's shoulder "you go to the land and I'll handle with those two"

"Thanks" smiled Lily at her. They hugged before Mell disappeared in the lake.

Lily climbed to the coast when she heard a loud shriek and a second later a loud scream "something grabbed my foot!" she smiled, quite disappointed that she can't stay and watch Mell's "handling" with Potter and Penthale.

She summoned her clothes and glasses, got dressed and run back to the castle.

* * *

Lily burst to the Gryffindor common room startling Jessica and Viviane that set there alone chatting. 

"What's the meter?" asked Jess seeing Lily's face.

"Potter.." breathed Lily "in the lake.."

Vi' gasped in surprise "he _saw_ you?"

Lily nodded, falling with tiredness into an armchair "red hair, green eyes_, everything_" Lily muttered.

"Oh my god.." whispered Jess.

"That's not the worst part," added Lily.

"What else?"

"He tried to.." Lily started but stopped shivering in disgust.

"What? Come on tell us!" bagged Vi' sitting on the edge of the sofa.

"He tried to kiss me" answered Lily in a low voice. There was a moment of shocked silence, before Jess, trying to suppress her grin asked "so what did you do?"

Lily looked at Vi', whose shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.

"Sorry" she said quickly giving a fake cough.

Lily looked back at Jess, now smirking "do you know the trick- "seduce and then dump?"

"Yeah, so?" asked Jess confusedly.

"Well..." smiled Lily "I did the same to Potter, only with a slight change. It was more like "seduce and then pull to the water" a very_ cold_ water"

"Lily, you didn't" laughed Vi' almost falling from the sofa.

"You should have seen him" laughed Lily herself, leaning back "all soaked wet with sea weeds in his hair...it was priceless! Too bad I didn't have a camera..."

"Hold on, start telling from the beginning"

Lily told them exactly what have happened from the moment that she got caught by James until the moment she saw Elany running to the lake.

"So what did you do with James and Elany?" asked Vi', after she got up from the floor from laughing so much.

"I left Mell to take care of them" shrugged Lily.

Right at this moment James and Elany entered through the portrait hole, their wet clothes sticking to their body. The girls stopped laughing and looked at them.

After a moment of staring, Lily curled in her armchair, took a book from the table and stared at its cover, the corners of her mouth twitching.

Vi' started to cough really hard this time, not able to breath properly.

Jess raised her eyebrows at them "and what happened to you two?" she asked casually.

"N-non o-of y-your b-bus-iness, B-B-Benory" stuttered Elany, shaking with cold and went up to the girls dorm.

James didn't answer but just glared at Jess, which only made her smile wider.

When the girls heard two doors shutting loudly, they burst again in laughter, this time all three fall to the carpet without being able to get up again.

"Revenge is so sweet" thought Lily, smiling mischievously and looking at the direction where James disappeared.

* * *

"C'mon kids stay with me, I don't want to loose you" said a tall woman with dark hair and eyes to her twin children. 

"But mom" whined the ten-year-old girl "I wanna find Jess, and Lils, and Vi'.."

"We'll find them quicker if we'll split up" continued her twin, a ten-year-old boy.

"No, you heard me- Helen! What a surprise!"

"Erica, my darling! How are you?"

Erica smiled and hugged a woman with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. The woman named Helen looked down and smiled kindly.

"And those two angels are yours?" The twins exchanged glances and smiled.

"I'm Jamie, and between you and us-"

"We're far from angels. And my name is Julie" they stretched their hands which Helen shook with a serious expression, her eyes sparkling with laughter.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Helen Potter"

Julie's mouth dropped "Potter?"

"Do you happen to have a son named James Potter?"

"Yes, do you know him?"

"Oh..." started Jamie looking at his twin

"We heard a thing or two about him" smiled Julie secretly.

"Mom, can we go now? The train arrived" Erica looked at the train's doors which opened and a sea of kids went out.

"Well, all right, but don't get too far"

"We won't" smiled Jamie

"Thanks mom" hugged her Julie and the twins run towards the crowd.

"Sweet little kids" mentioned Helen smiling towards her friend.

"Yes. Unfortunately they only listen to two people"

"You and your husband?"

"No. My daughter Jessica and Lily Evens"

* * *

The twins walked together holding hands and looked in every direction. 

"You see them?" asked Jamie, standing on his tiptoes trying to have a better view.

"Not in the last ten minutes.. Hold it!" stopped Julie in place, her eyes spotting a tall boy with sandy hair "here is someone who can help us"

"Remi!" Remus got startled when two small kids suddenly hugged him forcefully.

"Hey guys, how are you?" he looked down at them, smiling.

"All cool. We're looking for Jess, Lils and Vi'" said Jamie.

"Sorry, didn't see them on the train"

"Hey Moony! There you are!" two boys with black hair and with several girls that surrounded them got closer, grinning from ear to ear.

"Where have you- who are those little kids?" asked one of them with confusion.

Jamie's face got redder. From all the insults that he heard, he hated being called a "little".

"Let me guess, you're Sirius Black?" asked Jamie with a fake smile.

"Yeah" Sirius answered with surprise "how did you know?"

"They're Jess's brother and sister," explained Remus.

"Really?" asked Sirius his smile grows wider.

"Yeah, and Jess told us about you"

"Which means that _you_ are the infamous James Potter" Julie looked up and smiled at the second tall boy with messy hair and glasses.

James looked pleased "so Jess told you about me as well?"

"Not Jess-"

"Lily" answered Jamie.

"Who?"

"He means Evens," said Remus

"Evens?" laughed Sirius

"The swamp monster?" frowned Elany.

James smiled arrogantly "I always knew that Evens has a crush on me"

The twin's hands clutched into fists.

"Well" smiled Julie sweetly "she told us a _lot _about _you"_

"You know" commented Jamie looking at his sister "his head doesn't seem so big but maybe it's because we're too close to him"

"What did you say?" frowned James. The twins looked back at him, not before smiling mischievously at each other

"You see" started Jamie "Lily always said that your head is so big that it's quite surprising that you can walk in the Great Hall without bumping your head in the ceiling"

"No" interrupted Julie, looking at Jamie with a frown "she said that his head is so big that he doesn't even _need_ a broom to fly in the air. His arrogance is doing it for him"

"No I'm sure-"

"She did say that-"

"So that's what Evens told you about me?" James asked, greeting his teeth with anger, when he heard some people gasping with shock of the twins courage to tell James Potter such things, or muttering between themselves. He didn't like to be humiliated in front of his friends, fans and admirers, and right now his little group was starting to get bigger with curious people who wanted to know what's going on.

"Actually.." said Julie looking thoughtful for a second.

"Guys.." warned Remus, looking worriedly at James who clutched his wand.

"Remi, the guy wants to know, I don't see any problem with that" smiled Jaime still looking at James's expression.

"She did mentioned that you're a bulling dork-"

"-A toerag"

"-Arrogant"

"-Selfish"

"-Womanizer"

"No that's Sirius Black" interrupted Jamie, looking at his twin.

"Evens called me a womanizer?" asked Sirius with one eyebrow raised.

"No"

"Jess did"

"Really? Probably one of the things that she likes about me" smirked Sirius. "let me guess, she always say how much handsome I am, right?"

Jamie looked at him with blank look on his face

"Not really" answered Julie instead.

"So what she say?"

"That your mouth is bigger than Potter's head"

"And that's saying something" commented someone from the crowd

"Jess!" yelled the twins happily hugging the dark haired girl with blue-green eyes that smirked at Sirius.

"There you are guys, we've been looking all over for you" said another black haired girl with glasses.

"Sorry Lily" said Julie hugging her.

"We've been occupied" mentioned Jamie hugging her as well.

"Yes I can see that" Lily's eyes looked from the marauders to their fan girls and to the rest of the people "what's with the crowd?" she asked.

"Move along! There's nothing to see here!" yelled a third voice. A girl with honey-brown hair and soft brown eyes pushed people aside. The people did what she said because no one wanted to mess with Viviane and her tamper. The marauders, Elany, Lily, Jess, Vi' and the twins were the only that stayed in place.

"We need to go now," said Lily loudly, looking straight at Jess, who got the message and walked away with the twins. Lily followed her after squeezing slightly Vi's hand and giving her a meaningful look which Vi' returned with a smile.

Vi' walked closer to Remus suddenly feeling shy

"thanks for finding them"

"It's more that they found me" smiled Remus at her.

She looked at her shoes for a second and then back at him "you should come and visit us at the house this summer"

"I will, I promise, you should come too"

Vi' nodded and started to walk away.

"Hey Remus" she suddenly turned.

"Yes?" Remus looked at her hopeful

"Wanna join us for dinner today?"

"Sure" his smile made her blush a little.

"Great see you at seven then"

"Bye"

"Bye"

Vi' turned around almost skipping with joy.

* * *

Lily and Jess looked at their friend with crossed fingers 

"Don't blow it" whispered Jess

"It just a little question how hard can it get?" but lily looked anxious as well.

"Well?" they asked their friend once she joined them

"I asked"

"And?" they asked in unison.

"He said yes" VI' smiled happily.

Jess was about to squeal but Lily covered her mouth with her hand "ssshhh, they still in ear shot" Jess giggled silently and walked with Vi' towards her mother.

Lily felt that someone was watching her and she turned around looking straight into James's hazel eyes, his gaze burring into hers. Lily smiled slightly and walked away with each twin in other side.

"Did I mentioned how much I love you?" The twins laughed in response.

"You welcome, lily"

"Any time"

* * *

"Here they are" said Erica seeing the six children getting nearer. 

"You should owl me" said Helen "but the problem is that we're moving out"

"Really? Where to?"

"We're going to live next to the Lupin's house, one of our friends in-"

"I know where it is!" interrupted Erica excitedly "the Lupins are good friends of us as well. We live the next street from them"

"It's got to be fate" laughed Helen "better I'll owl you when we settle down in two weeks"

"I'll look forward to it" they hugged and bid goodbye before turning in different directions.

* * *

A/n: I based Jamie&Julie on the Weasley twins so lets just say that they're going to annoy James and Sirius a lot when the next year will start.

I know its not properly edited but I just wanted to hurry up and get rid of this chapter because I won't be able to update so soon, because of school- I've got my final exams coming up and I need to study.

I really hope you liked this chapter, so do me a little favor and review please:)

Anyone wants to help me edit this ch? '


	4. guess who Head Girl is?

**A/N: i'm so sorry that it took me so long to post this chapter! i hope you'll like it, and review please! i would like to know what you think :)

* * *

**

Chapter four: guess who Head Girl is?

Charley got down to the kitchen, where Lily and Jess already sat and were eating breakfast.

"Morning" he yawned, sitting in a chair opposite his sister, and putting his head on the table.

"Good morning. Juice?" asked Lily, pointing with her chin towards the bottle.

"Yeah, sure" he nodded, stifling another yawn. They ate in quite for a few minutes, before Charley coughed, looking at the two of them "about today-"

"We know." interrupted Jess.

"Yes but are you sure-"

"We're sure." answered Lily.

"But you know how much I need to practice-"

"-to get on the team. We know. You already told us this 23 times"

"Well I just wanted to make sure, because it's important to me-"

"Charley!" They both yelled in irritation, glaring at him.

"We know." said Jess slowly through gritted teeth, looking back at the Dailey Prophet "Stop bugging; we already said that we'll help you practice"

Charley smiled in satisfaction. "So when are we starting?"

Jess and Lily groaned in response.

The three went to the back yard with broomsticks on their shoulders and Lily holding a football.

The moment they were in the air, Lily flew between the brothers, looking from Charley to Jess with wide smile.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we gathered around today, to play the first match of this summer between the Benory brother and sister! We hope that-"

"Cut the crap Lily, and throw the ball already!" yelled Jess, her eyes focused on the white ball.

"What happened to a little drama?" she teased.

"Lily!" they both yelled.

"Kidding, kidding." she laughed and threw the ball in the air.

"And we're off!" she yelled, and flew backwards to observe the match better.

"And Jess catches the ball first! She dodges under Charley who does a remarkable somersault in the air- we're glad that the ballet classes that he took, finally showing their influence on his flying skills-"

Charley laughed but didn't pay too much attention to Lily's words. He was already used to her teasing comments, when they played quidditch.

His big desire was to get on the Gryffindor quidditch team as a chaser or at least as a beater. Each summer he practiced with Jess, and Lily as the commentator.

Jess wasn't obsessed about the game as her brother was, but she still enjoyed playing it once and awhile.

Lily on the other hand, never liked to play it, even though she understood the rules.

She preferred to commentate in the game, testing new ways to make players loose the ball.

Charley always said that Lily is like a bludger with a snappy tongue.

"And Jess is heading towards the goal, looking from side to side- probably searching for her boyfriend, Sirius Black-"

"What!" Jess turned around in shock.

"-and Charley catches the ball! He's turning around, flying quickly to the other end, He shoots, he scores! 10-0 to Charley! Jess in the meantime is cursing the announcer in fury. Time of the month, my darling?"

Jess glared at Lily, grabbed the ball and threw it towards her head. Lily caught it, threw it back and smirked at her. "Well ladies and gentlemen, Jess seems to get up on the wrong side of the bed today, quite a jumpy girl, isn't she?"

Charley clutched his broomstick tighter so he won't fall down from all the laughing.

"10-10." announced Lily, smiling at him.

"What?" his eyes grew wider. Jess flew near his goal, smirking.

"You better pay attention, little brother."

"Hey, it's not fair!" called Charley, looking at his sister furiously.

"Eyes on the ball, Charley. I thought you've already learned not to listen to me when you play."

"Well it's kind of hard, especially with your _unique_ commentating." said Jess, making Lily chuckle.

The game continued another two hours, until they decided to head back inside for something to drink. When they got to the kitchen, Vi' already sat there with a tired face and was eating breakfast.

They greeted her with good morning which she returned with wide yawn.

"Since when are you up?"

"Four."

"Six."

"Seven thirty."

"You're kidding me!" she looked at them as if they were crazy "is the word _vacation_ saying something to you? I understand Lily, who likes to adopt the behavior of an owl, but you two?"

"I've got my morning runs." answered Jess, taking a bottle and a pack of cookies. "And Charley needs to practice in quidditch. Only you are acting like sleeping beauty and spend more than half of the day in bed."

"Hmph." answered Vi'.

"You should come and join us at running, it's great for the body, you know." said Lily.

"I'll think about that." shrugged Vi' which her friends interpreted as "no way in hell"

The sound of the bell rang in the house.

Erica entered the kitchen, smiling broadly. "Lily, why don't you go and open the door?"

"Its ok mum, I can get that." said Jess, getting up.

"No, no, I prefer that Lily will go and open it."

Lily and Jess exchanged glances. "Sure." Lily shrugged and went to the main door.

"Hello flower." smiled a tall dark haired teen of age 19, when she opened the door.

"Derek!" Lily gave him a tight hug which he returned with the same force.

"I can't breath, flower." he half chocked, half laughed.

"Sorry." laughed Lily letting him go.

"Lily who is- cousin!"

Jess run and hugged him as well, making him stumble backwards.

"Can't a man get inside a house?" he asked in mock angriness but then he smirked "Amazing. I can put my arms around you without difficulty."

Jess pushed him away and hit his arm. "Did you just called me fat?"

He laughed and kissed her on the cheek. "Missed you too."

He stepped forward and was almost lying on the floor, because of the force that the twins jumped on him happily.

He sighed with impatience.

"Are you going to let me enter in the next few days or are you going just let me sleep on the doorstep?"

Lily rolled her eyes, grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.

"Thank you." he said, dusting his clothes "By the way, I brought a guest." he turned around and called "Come on in and meet everybody!"

Through the door entered a beautiful girl at their age, with chocolate brown hair and black mysterious eyes. She was tall and wore tight clothes that showed all her perfect curves. She smiled at them, showing two rows of pearly white teeth.

"Guys, this is Angela. Angela those are my cousins- Jess, the twins- Jamie and Julie and Lily" Angela's eyes flashed with emotion that Lily couldn't recognize when Derek mentioned her name.

Angela looked straight at her, her eyes scanning her, from the baggy clothes that she wore, that hid any curve and feature in Lily's body; to her hair, that was held in a high and tight ponytail and lay lifeless on her back; and then to her huge square glasses that covered more than half her face.

Angela's smile turned into a smirk while she looked at the chubby short girl with the pale thin face.

"Pleasure." she said, her voice smooth and pleasant. "Derek told me a lot about you."

"Are you his girlfriend?" asked Jamie curiously.

"Yes, I am." laughed Angela. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." he answered quickly. The moment she looked away; Jess and the twins looked at Lily, who was looking at Angela with slightly narrow eyes.

"Why do I have the feeling that the whole story is going to repeat itself?" she whispered, continuing to observe the couple.

"Let's hope that she's not after his money, like the last one." whispered Jess back.

"What do you think?" mumbled Julie.

"We need to take the notebook out." answered Jamie, but didn't sound too sure.

"Just in case?" asked Julie, a smile starting to grow on her face.

"Just in case." he agreed with the same smile on his face.

"Minimum, two galleons that he will dump her on his free will." said Julie in a low voice.

"Ten if he'll dump her for Lily." added Jamie in a whisper.

They giggled and ran out of the room.

"I'll take care of the bags while someone will show you your room." said Derek taking his wand out.

"I'm sure that- what's your name again?" she asked looking towards the short girl.

"Lily." answered Lily, smiling sweetly, covering her dislike towards Angela.

"Well, I'm sure that Gilly can show me to my room."

Lily didn't bother to correct her and just nodded. "No problem."

Angela gave Derek a long kiss and then whispered in his ear, "See you soon."

Derek locked his eyes with Lily's and she shook her head slowly, cocking one eyebrow at him.

Lily climbed the staircase with Angela behind her.

"Do you work here?" asked Angela.

"No."

"Do you live here?"

"Yes."

"Do you like doing shopping?"

"Sometimes."

"I say almost never, with the state of her clothing." mumbled Angela to herself.

Lily smiled slightly but decided to ignore her. She turned a corner and opened the first door from the right.

"This will be your room." She stepped aside, allowing Angela to enter. "If you need anything call Ouch"

"Ouch?" Angela looked at her puzzled.

Lily smiled and called aloud "Ouch!"

There was a silent _pop_ and a small young house-elf appeared in front of the girls.

"Miss Lily called Ouch?" he asked, bowing deeply towards Lily's direction.

"Ouch is our youngest house-elf." explained Lily "And one of the best." she added, winking at him.

The house-elf blushed from pleasure and bowed even lower in response.

"Its name is Ouch?" asked Angela with raised eyebrows.

"No, _his_ real name is Tikey, but since the twins were little they always got into sticky situation and yelled always-…" Lily stopped in mid sentence, remembering to who she was talking to, so she just shrugged "it's a long story, for short we call him Ouch and that's it."

"Isn't that a bit childish?"

Lily shrugged again. "You get used to it."

"Whatever." Angela rolled her eyes.

Lily looked at Tikey, who looked back at her with curiosity.

"Mr. Derek brought another lazy cat, Miss Lily?" he whispered.

She stuffed her laughter and nodded while saying, "Ouch, Angela is going to be our guest in the next few days-"

"I plan to stay the whole summer." interrupted Angela, glaring at Lily.

"And as long as she stays here, please obey to any necessity of her." continued Lily as if she didn't hear any interruption.

Ouch bowed to her and then bowed to Angela.

"If miss needs Ouch, miss call Ouch and Ouch will appear." and with another pop, Tikey disappeared.

"Lunch will be ready soon I think, and I believe that's all." Lily smiled and turned to leave.

"Wait." called Angela suddenly, getting closer to Lily and looking down at her.

"Yes?" asked Lily looking at Angela straight in the eye.

"Look, just so we won't have any misunderstanding, Derek is mine."

"And…?" Lily raised one eyebrow.

"And," Angela got closer to her. "Consider this as your only warning: keep your ugly nails off of _my_ man or else…"

Lily looked at her in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Don't play the dumb girl with me, Derek told me all about you and the things you did."

"You've probably mistaken me with someone else, because I really don't understand what you're talking about."

Angela looked confused for a second at the puzzled look on Lily's face, and then an evil grin spread on her face. She looked at Lily from head to toe.

"You are probably right. Such a hideous creature as you can't possibly make Derek dump his girlfriends. I mean, look at you!" she laughed cruelly.

Lily fought back the urge to roll her eyes or at least slap the girl in front of her.

She sighted heavily and looked down.

"Yes, you're completely right." she looked up and Angela thought with satisfaction that she saw Lily's eyes sparkle with tears.

"Derek will never look at me." continued Lily, seeing the reaction from Angela. "I mean, his handsome, and mature, and smart and funny…" a dreamy look formed on her face "He's the perfect guy for any girl, but unfortunately he only sees in me his another little relative." she sighted again and looked up. "So you see there is no way that Derek was referring to me on this subject."

Angela looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yes." she said slowly. "You're right about that. Sorry." she added not sounding sorry at all and waved her hand like dismissing her.

"It's alright." smiled Lily turning back to the door. "Derek always tells that to his girlfriends, just to make them jealous." She closed the door behind her and decided that the most sensible action right now will be to get down and kill Derek.

* * *

She entered the living room, where Jess sat alone, with her lags on the table.

"Well?" asked Jess when Lily sat next to her.

"The same like the others. Another snobbish brainless cat." she sighed. "She showed me her claws, while she threatened that I'll keep _my_ nails of _her_ man."

Jess shook her head and rubbed her eyes. "I really don't get it why he picks them."

"I don't care why he picks them, all I care is what the hell is he telling them about me?"

Jess looked at her friend amused. "You know he's only doing that to make you jealous."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I doubt that. It seems more to me that all he wants is to enjoy a catfight over him."

Derek walked in and sat right between the two, putting his arms around each one of the girls' shoulder.

"So ladies." he smiled looking from one to another. "Chatting about me, behind my back? Now that is very rude."

Jess removed his arm from her shoulder and pushed him playfully "What makes you think that we were talking about you? We're trying to _avoid_ boredom you know, not to sink in it."

"Right." said Derek sarcastically and turned to look at Lily. "So flower, I still hadn't got my welcome back kiss."

"Forget it Derek, you've got a girlfriend." answered Lily with an indifferent voice, although she was struggling not to smile.

Derek seemed to know what she was trying to do and got a bit nearer.

"So I take it, that you don't like my girlfriend?"

"Just met her, I'll let you know. Although I don't see any difference between her and last _15_ that you brought with you on each occasion." she smiled slightly.

Derek laughed in response. "Don't tell me that your jealous, flower." he smirked.

"Jealous? Me? At your new pat-cat? Don't be ridicules!" she laughed.

"Really? Are you sure?" he asked her with a sly smile, getting even closer. "Maybe I can change your mind about that…"

Lily gave him a lopsided grin and leaned forward until their noses touched. "I don't think so. Besides, you better not keep your girlfriend waiting." she said in a smooth voice.

Jess looked at the two, from the other end of the couch, enjoying their game. Every year it was the same and it never got boring.

Derek let a slow breath and traced Lily's full lips with his thumb. "Yes, I better go." he said in the end looking almost sorry for saying that.

"Meet you later?" he asked, his smirk on his face again.

Lily shrugged in response and leaned backwards. "We'll see."

Derek smiled again and kissed the back of her hand. "I'll see you two ladies later, than."

He nodded towards Jess and Lily and left them alone.

* * *

"Got settled?" Derek asked when he entered Angela's room and put his arms around her waist.

"Almost." she smiled and kissed him.

"By the way," she said after they broke apart. "I found out what you tried to do, and I don't see why you wanted to make me jealous if you know that I love you, baby."

Derek looked at her surprised. "Jealous? Who told you that?"

"That thing- what's her name again?"

Derek already guessed who is she was referring to. "Lily?" he smiled.

"Yes, _her_."

Derek burst in laughter. "And you believed her?"

"So it's true?" her eyes narrowing in anger. "She managed to break up your past relationships?"

"Yeah, but why does it meter? She won't be able to break us up." he kissed her and then added in a sly smile. "Our love is stronger."

Angela frowned slightly. "How on earth did she manage to do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Have you _seen_ her? I'm surprised that she has friends at all!"

"She's more than what she seems." Then he smiled slightly remembering what have happened a few moments ago. "She's got her ways."

"Why do you like her in the first place?"

"She's a good kisser." he answered casually.

She got closer to him. "Better than me?" He smirked and lowered her to the bed as a response.

* * *

Jess looked up at the ceiling. "He started it again."

Lily looked up as well. "Let's hope that he silence-proofed the walls and locked the door."

Jess looked back at her. "How long is she staying?"

"The whole summer, but I've got a feeling that she'll leave sooner than planned."

"You'll make Derek dump her?"

Lily shrugged in response. "Only if she'll drive everyone nuts."

"I don't know." said Jess in hesitation. "I think I can tolerate her until the end of the summer."

* * *

-Four days later-

"I can't take this anymore!" yelled Jess in frustration.

Lily, who stood by the entrance door and was tying her shoes looked up surprised at her friend. "What is it this time?"

"Her idiotic requests, what else? 'Oh, you don't have any trickle-double-chocolate dietetic cake!'" imitated Jess in a high-voice. "'there's a wrinkle on my skirt and it needs to be iron again!' 'I want a glass of fresh valley water…' 'I need a soft blue sea towel!' 'I need this…I need that…' what does she think we are? a hotel!"

"But isn't Ouch taking care of her?"

"I thought so too." said Jess. "But she refused to yell "ouch!" Every time she needed something because it was "immature", and ouch didn't responded to his real name so all the work landed on me, just because my _dearest _cousin threatened to tell mum and dad that I sneaked out the other night to meet a guy."

She put her hands together in a begging position. "Please Lily, please, _please_, make her leave!"

Lily looked thoughtful for a moment. "I don't know, Derek seems happy with her."

"Yeah." snorted Jess. "With her always jumping on him and kissing him every time you enter the room."

"So you've noticed it too? I thought it was my own imagination." she sighed then and stood up after finishing tying both shoes. "I'll think about it, I'll just deliver this and come back."

Jess looked at the envelope curiously. "What's that, anyway?"

"Invitation for the party in two days."

"The one that my parents organizing here?"

"The same one, I need to deliver it to-" she looked at the address. "House no. 19."

"Why don't you send it with your owl?"

"I need a walk, and besides it's very close. Anyway, I'll see you later and we'll figure this out."

Jess nodded. "See you soon." she said.

After the door was closed Jess heard some voices that argued.

"This is really none of your business." said Vi' in annoyance, the twins behind her laughing.

"Jess help! They won't leave me alone!" she said sounding desperate. Jess put a comforting arm around her and looked at the twins with a stern look.

"What did you do to her now?"

"Nothing!" smiled Julie, snickering.

"We just wanted to know where she disappeared to this morning." said Jamie.

"Yeah, where were you?" asked Jess sounding curios now.

"I just went to deliver some invitations for Mrs. Benory." said Vi' in a tired voice as she was explaining it for the thousand time.

"Yeah. Which one of the invitations included Remi's house." sniggered Jamie.

"And which she stayed there more then three hours" continued Julie, laughing again.

Vi' blushed and stared away from the others. "Really?" asked Jess with interest.

"Yes, so what if I did?" said Vi' crossing her arms, but than she relaxed. "Anyway I didn't manage to deliver everything, there was one house left so I asked Lily to do it for me."

"She just left." nodded Jess. "Went to house no. 19 or something."

Julie and Jamie exchanged worried glances. "Uh oh." they said together.

"What do you mean?" asked Jess suspiciously.

"No. 19 is the house where the Potter family lives." answered Julie.

"What!" Jess and Vi' yelled together.

"Yes, they moved in yesterday, we've heard mum talking about it." said Jamie.

"And you didn't tell us?"

The twins shrugged, "You never asked."

* * *

Lily rang the bell and looked at the big house in front of her. There wasn't any sign with the name of the family on it, but she guessed that they still hadn't found a time to do so.

"Come on in! The door is open." called a female voice from inside.

Lily did as she was told and entered with a bit hesitation through the door.

"I'm in the kitchen." called again the voice. Lily walked towards the voice while looking around her.

She put behind her ear a strand of red hair and continued to observe her surrounding.

_Wait_, she froze. _Red hair?_

She looked at her side where a small mirror was hanging on the wall and her eyes grew wider.

There was her reflection all right, but her hair was auburn again. Did the spell go wrong? Or did it fade already? But she was sure that she dyed it this morning! How could that be?

She got closer to the mirror and pulled off her glasses, looking at her emerald green eyes.

_The spell on the glasses disappeared as well, what the-_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a pleasant, "Hello."

Lily jumped, startled and turned around quickly looking straight at a tall woman with hazel eyes.

"Ehh…good afternoon." answered Lily with a bit nervousness.

The woman smiled warmly at her. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, well… I was asked to deliver this to your family. It's invitation for a party that will be hold in two days at the Benory house."

"Ah, of course." nodded the woman "Erica told me all about it. Would you like to have a drink?" she asked heading back to the kitchen.

Lily, who tried to recover from her shock, didn't want to sound rude and agreed for the invitation.

"You didn't tell me your name yet." mentioned the woman taking a glass from one of the shelves.

"Emm..." Lily thought for a moment. She couldn't tell her, her real name because everyone in the neighborhood knew her by her different looks.

"Em? As in shortness for Emily? That's a very pretty name. My name is Helen Potter. It's a pleasure meeting you."

Lily stiffened when she heard the name "Potter" this can't be…

"Do you have any children?" she asked carefully.

"Yes I've got one son, James and of course there is Sirius." Helen chuckled softly "Which he's like part of the family.".

She gave Lily a glass with butterbeer which Lily mumbled "thank you" in response.

"Do you live here?" asked Helen trying to get to know the nervous girl better.

"Five years." answered Lily, taking a sip.

"That's nice. We moved here only a few days ago. And the only thing we managed to finish properly was the enchantment on the house."

"Enchantment?" asked Lily with more interest. "You mean you put protective charms on the house?"

"Yes. You can never be cautious enough about your protection. Especially in these days." Helen smile faded a little, but second later she returned to her cheerful state.

.Lily started to like this woman

"Did you happen to charm the door as well?"

"Yes, we put anti-magic on every entrance which means-"

"That any spell or charm will be broken once they'll step inside." continued Lily, remembering what happened to her hair and glasses.

Helen looked impressed of Lily's words.

"That is correct. You attend Hogwarts as well I suppose?"

"Yes." Lily smiled, relived that she understood what happened to her disguise.

"My son, James, is in his seventh and final year." said Helen, sounding very proud "And he's elected as Head Boy."

Lily chocked from her drink, and could feel her mouth dropping to the clean floor of the kitchen.

James Potter,_ Head Boy_? Who on their right mind will appoint _him_ for the roll?

Helen noticed the astonishment on the girl's face and smiled.

"I can guess what you're thinking and I can't tell you exactly how the school is going to handle with James as Head Boy. Hopefully the Head Girl will get along with him."

"Who's the lucky girl?" asked Lily casually.

"Lily Evans."

_CRASH!_

"Are you alright, my darling?" asked Helen in concern, helping Lily of the floor.

Lily looked at the woman with wide eyes full of horror.

"Who did you say again, the Head Girl is?" she asked in unsteady voice.

"Lily Evans, why?"

"How do you know that?"

"Me and my husband are working at the ministry, we've got a very good connection with Albus Dumbledore, but are you sure you're alright? You look very pale."

Lily was about to reply when she heard a loud call. "Mum! We're back!" Lily got even paler if possible.

"I...I need to go back." she stumbled backwards, while Helen looked at her in confusion.

"Is everything alright?"

"I…forgot my cookies in the oven."

"In a _muggle _oven?"

"Yes…it was a special assignment from Muggle Studies, for… extra points because... I need to improve my grade so… good day to you and here's the invitation." she put the envelope on the table and practically ran away at the same time that James and Sirius walked in.

James thought he saw a flash of red hair disappear from sight.

"Hey you! Wait!" he called and ran after her but managed to catch only the sight of the front door slam shut. When he reached and opened it he saw only the quiet street as usual.

* * *

Vi' and Jess sat in Jess's room when Lily apparated, and fell on the bed panting.

"Are you ok?" asked Vi' kneeling beside her friend.

"Po-tter" breathed the pale-faced Lily who tried to calm down.

"Yes, we heard about that." Jess frowned. "Did you meet him?"

"I ran... before I've got a chance. I just found out the most horrible news."

"What?"

"I'm Head Girl-"

"Congratulations!" cried Vi'.

"-alongside with Potter."

"What? Did Dumbledore got drunk or something? Doesn't he know that if he'll put you two together it's going to be a complete chaos?"

Lily groaned in response. "I need a swim." she sighed. "And can somebody please, get me a shooting gun?"

"Why?" Jess asked surprised.

"I'm developing this year a new hobby." answered Lily darkly. "Shooting stags."

* * *

**A/N: as i said on the top, please REVIEW:)**


	5. pictures and bets

**Disclaimer: nothing belongs to me, well... perhaps the twins...**

Chapter five: pictures and bets

Lily stood on the diving board and looked down at the pool below her. She stepped a few steps backwards, took a deep breath, ran across the board and jumped, doing a somersault in the air and falling to the water head-first.

She felt the cold water embrace her body while she dived, swimming against the bottom to the other end of the pool.

"Nice jump"

Lily smiled and swam towards the wall. "Thank you." she said, putting her head on her arms. "What are you doing here?"

Derek shrugged and sat down.

"Missed our talks. Since I arrived, I wasn't able to catch you alone."

Lily smiled at him. "You've been busy."

"You too."

"You know I've got to work."

"Don't see the reason for it. After all, my family has enough money to take care of you."

Lily's look turned to a serous one. "Charity" she said only.

"No." he said, touching her cheek gently with his fingers. "Love and care."

Lily smiled slightly, knowing that he's right. She can't be ungrateful to the family that raised her.

"I still prefer to work for my living, makes me feel more independed."

"Right," he laughed. "And at how many jobs are you working this time?"

"Five, not including the two during my next year in Hogwarts."

"That's all?" Derek asked sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "What can I do? I have my yoga lessons, my work in Madam Malkin's shop, the Leaky Cauldron, Flourish and Blotts book shop and I'm painting the ice-cream shop, I've got a busy summer."

He laughed again. "Really?"

"Yes. _And_ I'm working in Honeydukes and the Three Broomsticks during my Hogsmeade weekends."

"How on earth are you going to have time for your friends?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

She shrugged in response. "I'll have time, don't worry. And speaking of friends," she gave him a stern look. "What is that that I'm hearing, that you blackmail Jess to work as a servant for your cat?"

Derek gave her an innocent look, which didn't influence her at all.

"But angel voice-"

"Shh!" she said hastily looking in each side "I told you never to call me that around here!"

"Still afraid, that they'll find out that you're singing?"

"_Yes,_" she said in a whisper. "You know bloody well that I don't want them to find out. Not yet anyway."

Derek looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know I don't see any reason that is stopping me from telling them…."

"Oh really?" she asked, raising one eyebrow. "I'm sure that Erica and Richard would be _thrilled_ to hear that you took an _underage girl_ into a pub where they sell alcoholic drinks under full awareness that that's _illegal."_

Derek moved his finger disapprovingly. "You see? If Jess knew at least half of the stuff that you know about me, none of this would have happened!"

Lily rolled her eyes but laughed nonetheless.

"I can't exactly use it," she said in a softer tone. "After all, I was the one who asked you to take me to a place where I could sing."

Derek shrugged in a careless way. "Don't mention it. I would break the law anytime for you, if I'll be able to hear you sing again."

Lily looked away to hide her blush.

Derek, sensing her discomfort, felt that's its better to change the subject. "I see you're using the contacts I gave you." Titling her chin upwards and staring at her brown eyes.

Lily smiled at him, relieved that he changed the subject. "Yes, they're great. I can use them regularly in Hogwarts if someone will caught me without my glasses, not to mention that they're water proof, which is the best." she said cheerfulyuntil she realized that her chin was still held by Derek.

"Derek?" she asked, raising one eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"What do you think?" he smiled and leaned closer.

Lily tried to hide her smile, even though her eyes flashed with deviousness. "You _do_ realize, that your girlfriend is standing behind you, don't you?"

Derek let go of her chin immediately and jumped quickly on his feet, ready to give an excuse, just to find out that nobody was standing behind him.

He looked back to the pool, and saw Lily swimming away, laughing.

"Not funny, flower!"

Lily just pulled her tongue at him in response

* * *

. 

"Hey prongs wait up!" called a tall boy with long black hair and icy blue eyes, jogging after his friend.

"Come on Padfoot! I need to check if it's her!"

"How do you know it's the same one?"

"You heard what my mother said. She had red hair and green eyes. Exactly like the girl who had the _nerve_ to pull me into the lake." answered James angrily.

Sirius smiled despite himself. Like James, he remembered what happened at the last night in school, when James stormed into the dorm and slammed the door loudly, waking the rest of the Marauders up.

It took them awhile to understand fully what have happened, while James was pacing on the floor fuming.

"This is suppose to be it." James mumbled and rang the bell impatiently. After a few seconds, the door opened by a little girl with dark hair and blue eyes.

"Oh, it's you." she said, leaning on the wall. "What do you want?"

"Can I enter?" asked James frowning. This girl seemed familiar for some reason.

"No," she answered shortly. "What do you want?"

"Hey Julie! What-" a young boy got nearer towards the door but froze when he saw who was standing outside.

"Oh, it's you," he said crossing his arms. "What are you doing here?"

"Let me handle it." muttered Sirius stepping in front of James, and flashing the twins his most charming smile.

"Listen, we're looking for a girl with red hair and green eyes."

The kids stared at him with shock. "What's her name?" asked Jamie while shooting his twin a nervous look.

"We're not sure." answered Sirius truthfully.

"So what makes you think that she lives here?" asked Julie while mouthing back to her brother _'send to Lily'_. Jamie nodded once to show that he understood.

"Look," interrupted James. "This girl came to my house to deliver an invitation from_ this house_ so logically she suppose to be here-"

"Ask Lily." interrupted Jamie.

"What?" asked James confusedly.

"Go. Ask. Lily." said Julie emphasizing each word slowly.

"Where?" asked Sirius.

"Backyard." the twins said together, before slamming the door in their face.

"Bloody kids," mumbled James. "How are we suppose to get there?"

"Can't you Apparate?"

James looked at Sirius confusedly. "Did you say something?"

"Up here." said an amused voice

They looked up to see a fifteen year old boy, sitting on a broomstick with one bare foot on the stick while the other hanging in the air loosely. One of his arms was around his knee and the second laying on the handle of the broom.

James was quite impressed even though he didn't show it. He knew that for such a position you must need a great balance.

"How can you sit like that?" asked Sirius, looking as impressed as James was. Charley looked uncomfortable by the question.

"Years of yoga and ballet classes." he mumbled.

"What?"

"Never mind," answered Charley hurriedly. "You better Apparate to the backyard, because the twins won't let you in."

"Why?"

"They don't like you."

"They don't even know us."

"We know about you enough," for a second Charley's eyes flashed with anger but then he smiled again. "She's in the pool."

James nodded and Disaparated. Sirius looked up before doing the same. "Hey kid! Want to join us to a game of quidditch tomorrow?"

"Sure!" Charley's face glowed with pleasure.

"Yes!" he punched the air with his fist after Sirius Disaparated. He suddenly yelped when he felt himself slipping from the broomstick and only hanging by his knee.

"Smile!" a cheerful voice called, and Charley was blinded by a flesh of light.

Jamie took the photo out and waved it in the air, while Charley tried to climb back up to his broom.

"My big brother," said Julie proudly, looking at the picture. "The flying baboon."

The twins squealed in fright when Charley landed on his feet in front of them, holding his broom in a position that didn't leave any doubt about what he was going to do with it.

* * *

James looked around the large yard when Sirius apparated next to him. 

"There's the pool, she suppose to be there." pointed James. Sirius nodded in agreement and they approached the 10 meters length pool.

"_Stupefy!_" they both fell with their face forward without able to move a muscle.

"Derek, what's going on?" they heard a female voice and soft footsteps that approached their direction.

"Just found here those uninvited guests." answered Derek, touching one of the bodies in front of him with his foot.

Lily looked down at the two bodies with a frown. "Let's turn them around."

When they did it, she groaned and put her head in her hands "This has got to be the worst day ever." she mumbled to herself and then looked up at Derek.

"It's alright you can release them, they're not Death Eaters. It's only Black and Potter, the morons that moved to the neighborhood."

Derek looked with interest at James. "Potter? _The_ Potter?" his attention focused on James' face. "His head doesn't seem so big."

Lily smirked at his words. "Wait until you get to know him."

Derek smiled slyly at her. "Are you sure you want me to release them?"

Lily looked back to the two boys, getting a huge temptation to leave them in this state, but reason beat temptation faster. "Just do it" she sighed.

James and Sirius blinked, suddenly able to move. In a split seconds James was on his feet with his wand outstretched. "How dare you-"

Derek raised his eyebrows at him. "Well, what did you expect? What would you do, if a complete stranger would Apparate from no where into your house?"

James calmed immediately by this, and lowered his wand quickly. "We're sorry," he said. "But there were two kids that didn't let us enter-"

"God bless those twins." whispered Lily to herself, causing Derek to look at her with amusement.

"-and there was that kid on the broomstick that said that we can Apparate in here," continued James. "I'm James."

"Derek."

They shook hands.

"And this is my friend Sirius." said James nudging Sirius at his side. Sirius wasn't even paying attention. He was starng at Lily with a look that made her very uncomfortable.

"Stop staring Black. It's very rude."

James finely, gave attention to the girl that was standing beside Derek. From first glance he didn't recognized her, but that tone of voice…

"Evans?" he asked unsurely.

Lily looked at him coldly. "Good guess, Potter."

His eyes widened with astonishment.

That wasn't the same girl that he studied with for six years, he was sure of that.

The Evans that he knew didn't have flat stomach, nor she had curved thighs and gorgeous strong legs. And she definitely didn't have those-

His eyes raised from her legs and stomach to her chest that was visible under the low v-cut of her full swimming suit. She didn't wear her glasses, and her hair wasn't in its usual high ponytail, but was fully down and reached under her shoulders, wet from the water- and so was the rest of her body…

Derek burst in laughter, watching James' expression. "You mean to tell me that you never knew?" he asked him, and then he turned to look at Lily, amused. "Don't tell me that you still wearing those ugly baggy clothes of yours in school."

"Of course I am! Why?"

Derek looked at her from head to foot and then looked at James. Lily looked at him puzzeled until her eyes grew wider with realization. She turned to James with disgusted look on her face.

"Unbelievable Potter! Only you would put your head in your trousers, instead of where it supposed to be."

"What?" he looked at her with confuse.

"Are you good at Occlumensy?"

"Why?"

"Because Derek is, so I'll suggest that you'll keep your thoughts blocked in your head."

James frowned at Derek who shrugged innocently. "What can I say? She's right."

"Why did you come here?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"We need to ask you something." Sirius spoke for the first time.

"What?"

"Do you know any red-headed girls around here?"

"No," she answered coldly. "Why?"

"James is looking for one."

"What for?" she asked suspiciously.

"None of your business Evans." spat James angrily, getting back to his usual behavior towards her. "I've got an unfinished business with a certain one."

He saw something glittering in her eyes. Amusment perhaps? The tips of her mouth twitched as if she was about to smile.

"Very well, now that you didn't found her, you can leave the same way you came here."

"Now wait just a second-" started James angrily but was interrupted by a screaming that was coming from the house. A second later three kids ran outside towards their direction.

"Lils! Derek! Help!"

"He's trying to kill us!"

The twins reached them and hid behind Lily, while Derek caught Charley before he managed to jump on the twins.

"What's going on?" asked Lily confusedly

Charley didn't respond and only tried to break free from Derek's clutch.

Lily looked down at the twins questionably.

"We just took a picture of Charley while he's on his broom." said Jamie innocently.

"Unfortunately he decided to pick exactly that moment to fall from it." continued Julie sending Charley a sweet smile, which only made him to struggle harder against Derek.

"All this mess for a picture?" asked Derek in surprise, holding Charley's arms without difficulty daspite Charley's struggle.

"Let me see it." said Lily calmly looking down at the twins.

Julie gave it to her with an innocent smile.

Lily stared at it for a moment, looking at the half surprised and half puzzled look of Charley that was hanging upside down and hanging with one knee over the broom.

The ends of her mouth twitched for a second before she looked up again

"Well," she said handing the picture to Charley. "Take it and get rid of it."

Charley snatched the picture and ripped it to pieces.

"Good, now you can go and I'll take care of the rest." she assured him and then turned to the twins. "Alright you two, hand me the copies."

"What copies?" Jamie asked in surprise

Lily raised her eyebrows. "You know what I'm talking about, come on." she stretched her hand with her palm upwards.

The twins exchanged glances and with a sigh pulled the copies of the picture and handed it to her.

"What were you planning to do with it?" asked Derek in curiosity.

"To enlarge it at the size of the entrance door and hang it in the living room." smiled Julie.

"Sounds harmless to me." said Derek looking at Lily.

"No Derek." she said with finality in her voice.

"It's not fair Lily!" whined Jamie. "It's a good picture."

"And besides, if you won't give us at least one copy, well..." Julie stopped dramatically. "Don't forget that we know _pretty much_ everything about you." she said with a meaningful look.

Lily looked at Derek and winked at him, hiding her smile. Derek smiled at her quickly showing that he understood.

"So let me get it straight," she said coming closer to the twins and kneeling so she could be at least in the same eye level with them. "Are you blackmailing me?"

"Yes, we are."

"And there is no way I'll be able to convince you correct?"

"Yes."

"Thought so." said Lily with a sigh and then nodded towards Derek.

The twins squealed when Derek and Lily grabbed them and started tickling them all over.

"Are you sure I can't convince you?" asked Lily with a smile.

"O...ok..." said Julie through giggles.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch that." said Lily with a fake confused look.

"All right! All right!" Yelled Jamie and burst in laughter again.

Lily and Derek stopped tickling them, and Lily hugged Julie from behind. "I'm glad that we cleared it out." she said with a smile.

The twins rose to their feet and walked away with a disappointed expression on their face.

Lily rose to her feet and when she turned her smile vanished at once. "What are you still doing here?"

"We were just-"

"Leaving?" she suggested. "You've got nothing to look in here. There's no girl that answers your description." James looked at her through narrow eyes and said, "Fine. We'll be going then." and Dissaparated.

Sirius stared at Lily with an expression that was unreadable.

"What?" she asked.

"How come when we are doing troubles you're not acting so friendly with us?"

Despite herself, Lily smiled at him and raised her eyebrow. "You want me to tickle you too?"

"I won't object." he winked at her suggestively.

"Get out of here, Black." she sighed. The last thing she wanted that day, is to flirt with a Marauder. How disgusting!

Sirius did a mock bow and Dissaparated as well.

"Dam'n it!" Lily clapped her hand to her forehead.

"What's the matter?" asked Derek worriedly.

"I forgot to take the film from the twins' camera!"

* * *

It was near ten pm, and Jamie and Julie were sitting on the kitchen table. Julie held a small black notebook, and was writing in it in a quick pace, while Jamie was counting galleons and sickles and putting them in small begs. 

"Write it down," said Jamie counting sickles on one hand. "Jess gave extra 10 sickles to her bet, and changed it to: Derek who will get rid of his pet because of Lily, in two days at the party before 11 o'clock."

"Plus ten…in the party…before 11," she looked up from her notebook. "It seems that everybody knows that he'll dump that "angel" at the party."

"It's a good opportunity," smiled Jamie. "But if Lils let us do a little pranking here and there… I'm sure that that "angel" would have left earlier."

"I doubt that," Julie frowned and then smiled evilly. "Besides, it's much more fun to see Lils handling it alone. I can see that she's getting angrier each time that Angela commenting something about us."

"Yeah I know," Jamie laughed. "The only way to provoke her, is to insult one of us in public."

"Yes, and that "thing" provoking every one of us, even mum! Did you see her face when Angela made a disgusted look at her cooking? And called that the house-elves are trying to poison her with a rotten food?"

Jamie shook his head in astonishment. "I know! I was surprised that mum didn't chop her head off because of that!"

"And dad? He was ready to explode when she said that there is probably a lack in discipline in this house, because of our behavior and Charley's lack of caution when he flies. And all this because of that stupid photo we hanged outside the entrance door!"

Julie shook her head, and started marking something in the notebook while saying angrily. "But she really passed the line this time. To say that Lils looked like a street orphan with her looks, _really_ drove over the line in mum and dad's patients. I was surprised that Derek didn't respond to that. He is the first usually to defend her, with his job and everything."

Their conversation was interrupted when Erica and Richard, their parents, entered the kitchen.

"What is this?" asked Erica sternly, eyeing the piles of money that were spread on the table.

"Well err…" the twins looked at each other.

"You're organizing bets again, aren't you?" asked Richard with a frown.

"How many times do I have to tell you-" started Erica angrily

"-not to do it in public?" suggested Jamie with an innocent smile, while Julie covered her mouth to stifle her giggles.

"No." said Erica, slightly in irritation. She was about to continue, when her husband put his hand on her arm.

"Let me handle this," he said to her quietly. "You go and get some rest, it's been a hard day for you."

She looked at him for a second and nodded. "Very well."

She gave a last glance at the twins and exited the kitchen.

"Now you two listen to me very intentionally-" the moment he didn't heard any footsteps, he leaned closer to his kids.

"Alright," he said in a low whisper. "How much is it?"

The twins exchanged amused looks before telling the details.

"15 galleons that Derek will dump Angela for Lils, 5 on his own will."

"15! How come it's so expansive?"

"Come on dad! It's not like you're the only one who wants Angela's ass out of this house!"

"Language, Juliana," warned Richard but he looked thoughtful. "So it's 15 for Lily to make Derek leave his girlfriend?"

"His sex partner, if to be accurate." mumbled Jamie.

"Jeremy!"

Jamie raised his hands in defense. "Charley said it first!"

"Its minimum 15 dad." said Julie quickly, trying to avoid argument.

"What are the odds?"

"The party in two days, during the evening."

"Hmm," Richard scratched his chin in thought. "Alright. Here are 20 galleons; I put it on Derek dropping Angela the next morning of the party because of Lily."

Julie raised her eyebrows "Are you sure dad? There are very low chances that it will happen only _after_ the party."

"I'm sure. Here's the money." He put the money on the encounter, where Jamie already started to count fast to see that the whole sum was there.

"You remember what I always say to you, don't you?"

"Never tell mum." the twins answered in unison.

"Good." he said in satisfaction and left. Less than ten seconds, Erica's head popped inside.

"Is he gone?" she asked in a low voice.

"Yes mum." answered Jamie, trying hard not to laugh.

"Wonderful. So how much is it?"

The twins explained again, and Erica paid for her bet.

"What do I always tell you?" asked Erica before leaving.

"Never tell dad." they answered together.

"Good kids. And I don't want to see a single sickle on this table the next morning." she ordered in the end.

The moment she left, the twins burst in laughter.

"We've got to have the weirdest parents in the world." said Jamie, while collecting the new gambling money carefully.

"And people wonder how come we came out like this." shrugged Julie with a wide smile.

"I know. I mean look at us! We've got parents who act like teenagers, a sister that is doing a marathon through guys, a brother who his only living reason is quidditch, a cousin with a split personality, we are friends with a werewolf _and_ we're hiding here an insomanian girl from a murderous Death Eater."

Julie nodded in agreement her smile growing wider. "You've got to love our life, my dear brother"

"Without a doubt."

They both laughed and continued organizing the gambling prizes.

* * *

**!A/N: hope you liked it, please REVIEW**


	6. a graveyard walk

**A/N: thanks to all my reviewers! in this chapter you'll get a little more information of Lily's past and finally James will get what he deserves...**

**Disclaimer: still own nothing...**

Chapter six: a graveyard walk

Lily took steady breathes, her ponytail swinging from side to side as she jogged on the sidewalk. Her loosened shirt was tied in a knot below her chest and the cold air was cooling her bare stomach and back.

Her body was sweating and her legs were getting tired, but she didn't stop.

The feeling of frustration and hurt were still fresh in her mind and heart, as it was yesterday morning.

_'Lily sat at the back of the row in the church, and watched the couple that was getting married. The bride was tall and slim with a blond hair that was tied up in an elegant hairdo._

_The groom that was slightly shorter then the bride and chubbier, gave an impression of (Lily tried to find the right words, without sounding insulting) a whale in a tuxedo._

_Despite everything that happened between them, Lily still loved her sister very much, and was proud of her at the moment._

_She continued to observe the ceremony half-heartily, her mind focused only on her sister._

_She knew she wasn't supposed to be here, but Lily couldn't let the chance of seeing her sister again, after all those years, to pass away._

_She just needed to know if Petunia still thought that she…_

_Well, she sighted, today we will find out about that answer, without Petunia knowing that she's there._

Lily closed her eyes tightly when she felt her eyes starting to sting again.

_"Dam'n it!"_ she thought and ran faster, trying to conceal her tears.

_'The party was full of people and Lily didn't have any trouble to blend in the with crowd. She looked sideways at her sister, close enough to hear what she was saying and far enough, from Petunia to recognize her._

_"Petunia! Lovely wedding." called an old plump lady cheerfully._

_Petunia smiled warmly at her. "Thank you, Mrs. Dorris."_

_She turned to her husband and her friends that surrounded them. "I would like you to meet Mrs. Dorris; she's an old friend of the family. Used to take care of me, when my parents were not home."_

_"Yes," agreed Mrs. Dorris. "Of you and your little sister."_

_Lily tensed and watched as Petunia paled suddenly._

_"You two used to do such problems," Mrs. Dorris chuckled, not noticing Petunia's reaction. "Of course you were the quieter type, while little Lily was the complete opposite; running around and making troubles like a hurricane. But what a voice she had! It felt like the world stopped spinning when she sang… Quite a talent she was… where is she, by the way? I haven't seen her for many years…"_

_Lily held her breath, her attention focused only on Petunia who was shaking with rage, and waited for her response._

_"I have no idea of what you're talking about," said Petunia coldly. "I have no** sister **and never** had **a **sister**." _

_Lily felt like someone poured a bucket of ice cold water on her body and her eyes gleamed with hurt._

_"My family died when my house suddenly was set on fire. I was an only child in our family."_

_This time Lily was the one that was shaking violently. _

_She got the answer that she was looking for._

_"Excuse me; are you a friend or a relative of the couple?" Someone asked her nearby. Lily turned to the questioner with an expressionless face._

_"No," she answered, trying to keep her voice steady. "I'm nobody. Absolutely nobody."'_

Lily bit her bottom lip to prevent herself from screaming- she will deal with the pain later. Her run became faster until she almost wasn't able to breathe properly.

She closed her eyes tightly trying to forget Petunia's words, when her foot was caught in something.

She yelled in surprise when she fell to the hard ground, and the air knocked out of her. She rolled a few times on the road before stopping on her back, her glasses lying broken a few feet from her. After the first shock, she felt her elbows and knees starting to sting with pain.

And then she heard it. A distant laughter.

"Nice fall, Evans!" and the voices burst in laughter again.

Lily lay motionless on the ground, even though from the inside she was burning from anger and hate.

Those idiots! Why did they have to pick on her today? She was near to an emotional breakdown since yesterday, and the last thing she needed now, was to get pranked by those arrogant, selfish brats!

Well, if they want to play with her… She has no problem to cooperate…

After a few moments, the laughter died away when the boys realized that the girl wasn't getting up from the ground.

Sirius and James exchanged slightly anxious looks.

"You think she's still alive?" asked Sirius.

"Don't know. But we can't just leave her like this. Come'n" James jumped over the fence and in two paces, kneeled beside Lily's body.

He put his fingers gently on her cheek and moved her head slightly.

"Evans, can you hear me?"

To his relief, her eyelashes fluttered and opened slightly. Her eyes closed immediately, and an expression of pain spread on her face.

"My head hurts," she whispered. "What happened?"

"You fell," he answered quickly. "It was an accident."

An accident, right… and it's probably only a coincident that there was an invisible rope on the road…

Lily let out a painful sigh and slowly got up on her elbows.

"Black, can you give me a glass of water please?" she asked in a small voice.

Sirius nodded and run towards the house leaving James alone with Lily.

James looked at her when she sat up, another painful expression crossing her face.

She looked at her scratched knees and elbows that were bleeding, but she didn't pay too much attention to them. Her target was kneeling next to her, and she will give him a little memento from her that she should have given him years ago.

"Potter, can you please help me to get up on my feet?"

James hesitated for a second before helping her up. He steadied her by holding her shoulders, and she opened her eyes looking straight at him.

"Thank you," she said weakly. "Would you mind to remove your glasses?"

James did what she asked him to, with a confused expression on his face. "What for?"

"For this!" her voice became suddenly louder, and the next thing he felt was a sharp pain where Lily's fist clashed with his nose and broke it.

He stumbled backwards, his feet tripped on the invisible rope and he fell to the ground.

"Hey Evans! Here's your-" Sirius stopped in his tracks and looked at the scene before him. "Water."

"Thank you," Lily said, she took a sip from the glass of water and the rest poured on Sirius' head.

Muttering "jerks" she picked up her glasses and Disaparated.

* * *

Lily walked towards the kitchen, examining her bruised elbows.

"Whoa Lils! What happened?" asked Jamie with worry, noticing the scratches on her hands and legs and the blood on her knees and elbows.

"I fell." she answered curtly, and messed his hair to show that everything was alright.

"I'm off to play quidditch with James and Sirius, can you tell that to mum?" asked Charley getting up from the table.

Lily nodded and patted his back, "No problem."

Charley held his broom on his shoulder and looked at Lily with an anxiously. "You ok, Lily?"

"Yes, don't worry," she smiled. "It's only a few scratches; I'll live."

Charley nodded, even though he wasn't seemed convinced of her answer.

"Derek is coming with me, so we probably going to return in the evening.".

"Have fun," she said, but after a second thought she turned around. "Charley?"

"Yes?" he stopped and looked at her.

"Do me a favor, ok?" she looked down at her elbows and knees. "Hit Potter's and Black's head with a bludger several times, will you?"

* * *

Four boys were up in the air, trying to snatch the red Quaffle and score some points in the opposite goal.

"Still hurts?" asked Sirius with amusement, seeing his best friend rubbing his nose for the fifth time.

James glared at him and said gruffly, "No, my mum fixed it for me in a second. I just still can't believe that she _hit_ me!"

"Who hit you?" asked Derek curiously.

"Evans," answered Sirius. "She punched James and broke his nose."

Derek looked at James with sympathy. "She has some nasty punches."

"I know," said James, scowling. "Since when did she learned how to punch?"

"She learned boxing and karate since she was six." answered Derek casually.

Sirius and James looked at him with surprise. "She did?"

"Sure. She even demonstrated her tactics for me." he answered with a half a smile, putting one hand unconsciously on his stomach.

"But she is usually a calm person. You must have made her very angry if she punched you. What did you do?"

Sirius and James exchanged wide smiles. "We found out that she likes to run in these hours, so we put an invisible rope on the ground and she tripped."

"I give her fall 8 out of 10." laughed Sirius.

"Remember how she rolled on the road?" James smirked. "Ouch!" he yelled when he was hit forcefully on his head by a Quaffle.

"Oh sorry!" called Charley. "Did it hurt?"

James rubbed his head and waved his hand in the air meaning, _"It's all right"_

Derek flew towards Charley and gave him a knowing look.

"What?" asked Charley innocently.

"You should learn how to aim." commented Derek dryly.

"I know," Charley let a disappointed sigh. "I was aiming for his stomach, but his head got on the way."

* * *

Lily put on her jacket and put her wand in her back pocket.

"Going out?"

Lily looked up to see Derek standing in front of her.

"I'm going for a walk, I feel like I'm drowning or something. Tell everybody to not wait up for me." she smiled at him and opened the door.

She heard Derek sigh and felt his hand on her shoulder, "Flower, why you're not telling me what happened? You've been in this mood since yesterday afternoon."

"In what mood?" she asked looking at him sideways.

"You know what I'm talking about," he looked at her seriously. "Even the kids noticed that something is wrong when you didn't say a thing or even joined when they started a food fight. Charley even thought that it was Potter's fault, after he heard what he did to you, and hit the guy with the Quaffle."

Lily smiled slightly at this and muttered, "Send him my thanks."

"I'm serious flower."

Lily sighed and turned around. "Look, it's just a little depression and nothing else."

"A little depression won't make you punch somebody because of a stupid prank. The only times that you _do_ attack, is when you're defending yourself, when a guy is trying to pass the line with you or when you want me to shut up."

Lily chuckled at this and shrugged. "Well, you get annoying sometimes."

"Flower…"

Lily sighted again. "Listen, it's nothing to worry about, I was just stupid enough to make a mistake and I need to go and relax and think about it all over. I promise you-" she put her hand in his. "That when I figure everything out, I'll tell you everything you want to know, alright?"

Derek nodded and gave her a quick hug before she closed the door behind her.

* * *

James sat on the window sill, and looked outside to the starless night. A cool breeze ruffled his already messy hair and he took a deep breath pulling it out slowly.

Nights like this he always enjoyed, it gave him some time to think about everything without any interruption.

He observed the empty and silent road in front of him, when he heard soft footsteps.

When he looked he saw a girl walking in the middle of the road, her hands in her pockets and she observing the sky with the same interest that he showed a few minutes ago.

When she walked near the street light, he recognized her. It was… Evans.

She wore long tight jeans, a black long sleeve shirt and a black jacket. Her hair wasn't in a ponytail, but lay loosely on her back, getting almost to her waist.

It still surprised him to see her wearing normal clothes and not those baggy clothes that were five times bigger then her size.

What was she doing here at this time of hour, walking alone?

After she passed his house, he jumped quickly to the ground and without a second thought started to follow her.

It seemed that she was in deep thoughts and from time to time he could hear her letting soft sighs escape her mouth.

He followed her for about ten minutes, still keeping his distance so she won't find him out.

Lily continued to walk, ignoring the person that followed her. She can deal with him tomorrow. Tonight, she needed to relax in the only place she thought she can.

In the nearest house, different lights were coming from it and a loud music, apparently there was a party inside.

"Hey, Lily!"

Lily turned around and saw a boy leaning on the balcony with a bottle of beer in his hand.

"Bred!" she smiled and walked closer. "I see you've got a wild party going on."

Bred looked inside for a second and shrugged. "Something like that. You want to come in and join us?"

Lily looked hesitant for a moment. "Err...no. No offence or anything, but I want to be alone tonight."

"You ok?" he asked in concern.

"Yeah, fine," she smiled. "Just one of those nights, you know."

"Hmm," he took a swig of the bottle and looked up to the sky. "No stars, I see what you mean."

"So how things going between you and Rachel?" although she wasn't planning on staying in one place for long, she didn't mind to have a small conversation with one of her friends. After all, she had the whole night in front of her.

"We broke up. I'm dating Jill now."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Nah. It's ok," he looked closer at her and frowned slightly. "Are you sure you don't want to come in? You seem like you could use some company."

"I'm cool," she shrugged. "Just one of my moods. Thanks for the offer though."

"Lily!" called a cheerful voice from inside, coming out of the house, slightly unstable.

"Hi Janet." smiled Lily.

"So you've decided to join the party, after all?"

Lily let a small chuckle. "Sorry Janet, not tonight."

"Oh," Janet looked very disappointed. "So where are you going?"

"Thought to have a long walk, relax a bit."

"So you've finally taking on my advice, huh?" asked Janet smugly.

"What? To get laid?" laughed Lily. "No, I think I'll pass."

"If your problem is with whom, I can give you a _long_ list of guys that would do it with pleasure- some of them are even taken." said Janet with a wink.

James watched from his place of hiding, the conversation between Lily and those two people, who seemed to be in their early twenties.

He was quite surprised that they even talked to Lily, better yet, Lily talking to them casually, like they were old friends.

He kept noticing the difference between her behavior in school compared to how she acted in this place.

It was like watching a complete different person, and it highly confused him.

It seems that here, the people actually liked Lily and enjoyed her presence while at school it no one could stand her.

He saw her laughing and chatting comfortably with the boy and the girl, and he just realized how little he knew about her.

"It's really a shame that you're not joining the party," he saw the girl sigh. "I could use some intelligent conversation with someone. You can't believe how _annoying_ it is, when your partner is staring at your chest the whole time."

"Well, you really do have a nice chest." the man with beer muttered and then winced when the girl hit him around the head. Lily put her hand on her mouth to hide her laughter.

"Easy, woman!" Bred said and moved a little from Janet. "It was just a compliment!"

"Compliment my ass! Why aren't you hitting on Lily instead?"

"Hey!" called Lily, sending a glare towards Janet.

"Are you nuts? I don't want to lose my teeth- or any other member of my body as well."

Lily gave him a sheepish smile, even though her eyes showed how pleased she was from his answer.

"Speaking of which-" Janet turned to look at Lily. "I heard that Frank is back in town."

James saw Lily groan and putting her head in her hands.

"Let me guess, he still holds a grudge against me, right?"

"I don't think that the fact that you broke his jaw helped him to forget you," commented Bred with a smile.

"Well, if he kept his hands to himself…"

"I know what you mean," Janet sighted again. "It's just impossible to find a guy who won't send his arms-" she hit Bred's hand that crept around her waist. "On your body"

"So tell me," she started, after giving Bred a dirty look. "Is it true that you broke the new neighbor's nose?"

Lily rolled slightly her eyes and muttered to herself, "How fast the rumors fly around this neighborhood."

James froze when he heard that, and cursed under his breath. Now Evans will start boasting and laughing on him for sure.

"What do you think?" he heard her ask dryly.

"So it's true, then?" asked Janet in a delighted voice.

"What's true?"

"That you broke that guy's nose."

"What guy?"

"The neighbor."

"Which one?"

"Lily!" said Janet angrily.

"What?" asked Lily innocently.

"Answer already!"

Lily looked at her confusedly. "What was the question again?"

"Drop it," laughed Bred. "You know she doesn't like to give details each time she kicked somebody's ass. You don't want to talk about it, right?" he asked Lily.

Lily sent him a grateful smile and raised her eyebrows, "Talk about what?"

Janet gave a desperate sigh and leaned on the wall. "Fine, I won't ask. But I'm doing it only because I know that tomorrow is the big night for you and for the rest of us."

"So you're coming?" asked Lily with interest.

"Of course we're coming! We want to collect our prizes, don't we?"

Lily rubbed her forehead and spoke slowly as if she was afraid of the answer, "Don't tell me that you gambled too."

"Sure we did," smirked Bred. "Those twins took 50 from each and every one of us who was interested. It's the only thing that people around here are talking about."

"Oh, brother." sighed Lily. One glance at her watch told her to better hurry up.

"Listen guys, I need to go. Catch you later?"

"Sure, I'll invite you to join us for a drink in two days to celebrate your victory." smiled Janet.

"You don't know what will happen tomorrow. Anyway, sorry to leave but there is an idiot who's been following me for the last three streets, and its better that I'll shake him off."

"I would have told you to be careful, but knowing you I'll say that I pity the person who'll try to mess with you." smiled Bred.

Lily chuckled softly at this and waved towards them. "Bye" she said and ran away.

* * *

Lily tightened the jacket to her body when she felt the cold air on her bare skin. She continued walking, half blind without the moon light and took steady breathes, clutching her wand tighter in her hand and trying to make as less sound as possible.

The graveyard was, of course, deserted in such time at night and she preferred it that way.

In this place the dead don't ask questions.

Lily stopped in front of two tombstones and set on the ground.

"Hi mom, hi dad." she smiled slightly and put the two lilies that she conjured from the air, on the ground in front of her.

"Long time no see, like Derek always says. But I just felt the need to come here and talk to you, you know?"

She was quite for a moment before continuing.

"I saw Petunia yesterday," she lay back on her back, in a vertical positions in front of the graves and stretched her legs in front of her.

"You should have seen her mum! She looked very pretty in that wedding dress," she smiled, and put her hands behind her head. "And I bet you would have been proud of her even if you disliked Vernon Dursley, dad."

She sighted and closed her eyes. "I frankly didn't find anything special about him, but it's Petunia's choice after all," she opened her eyes, a sad smile appearing on her features. "I watched the whole ceremony. Petunia, of course, didn't know about it and I doubt that she would have recognized me through this-" she held a strand of black hair. "Disguise."

She took a slow breath and shrugged one shoulder. "I really didn't know why I went..._no._" she corrected herself. "I knew exactly why I went. It was only because of that stupid hope of mine, that she changed her mind about me." she closed her eyes, a painful expression spreading on her face. "It was stupid, I know. To think after the last encounter between us when I was twelve, that she actually forgiven me it's just-" she let a helpless sigh. "But I couldn't help it. When I received her letter last year, and even after I read it I just felt... I thought… just maybe she didn't mean all those horrible things that she told me last time."

She observed the sky thoughtfully. "Not to come to her wedding," she let a dry laugh "It's easier to convince the twins to drop the idea of raising a dragon! After all those years that I didn't hear a sound of her and suddenly to discover that she's here… she actually thought that I won't come to see her?"

"But then," she continued, her smile fading slowly. "When I saw her face, when Mrs. Dorris mentioned me, I just knew that she didn't forgive me, that she still thinks that it's my whole fault for your- you know." she glanced at her parents grave and then stared at the sky again.

"I still remember what she told me in my second year, and it hurt back then, a lot," she put her hand on her heart. "Still does. But, " her mouth twitched slightly, and she bit her bottom lip to not start sobbing. "When I heard her telling to those people that she didn't have any sister… I won't deny that it broke me to pieces. I still love her. She is my sister- from my point of view, anyway."

She let a slow breath and wiped the tears from her eyes. "After that I just left. I looked for an answer and I found it. I've been in this depression since then, quite scared the guys because of it."

She smiled a half smile when she remembered everyone's questions. "Charley thought it was because of Potter so he hit Potter's head with the Quaffle- I consider to buy him a flying car to his birthday because of that... Erica and Richard were in the same opinion with the twins that it's because of Angela. So the twins blown her bed into pieces in three in the morning, and Ouch-that dear elf- cooked and put every special spices that Angela was allergic to them," she chuckled softly. "What a mess it was in dinner."

She shook her head slightly, stretching her arms in front of her. "But I can't tell anyone about this, because they'll get angry- with a good reason of course- but still…"

She sighed, put her hands on her stomach and looked at the tombstones with a happier smile. "Did I mention that I'm Head Girl? I found that out even before the letters have arrived. Mrs. P told me."

She turned on her side, so she was now facing the white tombstones. "You remember about Helen Potter, right? She and her husband are the main Aurors that are working on my case. They still looking for _him._" Her face darkened for a second but then she smiled again. "I like them very much, they are really nice people but their son!" she let an irritated sound, "That pompous jerk! Imagine me working with him for _a whole year_, not to mention that I need to share a dorm with him. When I first met Mr. Potter he told me to look for his son and befriend with him, because he trusted that his son will take care of me if I'll be in trouble. Right," she gave a short snort. "He took care of humiliating me, that's for sure." She shook her head again and rolled her eyes, "I hate talking about him, he's the guy that tries every time, to turn my life into hell."

She lay back to the ground and rubbed her eyes tiredly, "I hope you're ready for a long talk because I've got a lot to tell you. You can't even imagine what is going on tomorrow…"

* * *

**A/N: please REVIEW and tell me what you think :)**


	7. Lily vs Angela

**A/N: I know you probably want to kill me, and honestly I don't have a really good excuse for not updating for… let's see… almost two months? But I've been busy with school, and I had a minor writer's block so I guess you're going to have to forgive me.**

**But I really wanted to thank you all; I really enjoyed your reviews.**

**So, this chapter is dedicated to: Untamed Loner, Mz Qt and her friends, ReadingRobyn, Lanetk and last and but not least to you, my wonderful readers. Hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: don't own, don't own, don't own…. yawn don't own, don't own…zzzzzzz

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Chapter 7: Lily vs. Angela

Lily stood in front of the mirror in Jess' room, checking her reflection for the last time.

She wore black jeans that expanded from her knees down to the floor, and her shirt was two sizes larger in light blue color, and fell loose on one side, exposing one shoulder and a little cleavage.

On her waist she tied a silver belt, and on her feet were black platform shoes (it took Jess the whole afternoon to convince Lily to wear them).

Her hair was down, and she wore little square spectacles, that were 1/3 of the size she usually wore.

She ran a hand through her black hair and put a few strands in front of her shoulders.

She didn't wear any makeup or jewelry except a necklace with a clear stone hanging at the end,

After one last satisfied look at her reflection she turned around towards Jess and Vi' and smiled "all right, I'm ready. And you?"

"In a second" said Jess but once she turned and saw Lily she sighed disappointedly "Lily, what are you wearing?"

"If I didn't know for sure, I would say clothes" answered Lily sarcastically "but correct me if I'm wrong"

"You can't show up like that! You know how Angela is going to look? Like some goddess or something, and this way Derek will never dump her"

Lily raised her eyebrows "and then you'll loose the bet, right?"

"I didn't mean it like that…"

"Its ok" smiled Lily "will you just trust me? I know how to handle Derek. And besides, I can't exactly show up as a 'goddess or something'. First of all Potter, Black, Penthale and all the rest are coming here. Do you think that I want them to see me in a different style? It's going to be like I throw away all those five years of disguise and reputation in one second. And besides it's going to pain much more to Angela that Derek is dumping her for the 'poor street orphan', don't you think?" she asked with a sly smile.

"I like how your brain works" laughed Vi' "but how do you know that it won't happen in reverse?"

"Well" Lily looked slightly uncomfortable "Derek already hinted me that the only way that he'll dump her is if… I'll kiss him" she ended quietly.

"That's it?" her friends looked at her surprised.

"But you've already kissed him lots of times before, what's the big deal?" asked Vi'.

"First of all we didn't kiss 'lots of times' we only kissed twice" started Lily with a bit annoyance "and second, he always was the one to start those kisses and I just…" the ends of her mouth twitched slightly "cooperated"

"Hold it" said Jess and sat on her bed "you mean to tell me that you never kissed him?"

"I kissed him back, that yes, but I was never the first to start the kiss… and that what he wants me to do"

"But he always says what a good kisser you are…" started Vi' confusedly

Lily gave a short laughter "it's his way to say that he likes me. You know how he says always how much he loves Angela? Well in his words it means 'a good sex'. He always tells the other girls that the love between them is very strong and nothing will separate them. Now if you want to translate it in common words he means: 'as long as the sex is good, there's no reason to break up'"

Jess wasn't surprise at Lily's words; she always knew that Derek was a major player, except maybe around Lily. So to think that all Lily had to do was to kiss…

Suddenly Jess jumped on her lags, her eyes shooting daggers at Lily.

"You mean to tell me that I've been Angela's slave, just because you refused to give Derek a DAM'N KISS?"

* * *

Lily walked from room to room, greeting people that smiled at her and gave short responses to their questions, excusing herself to keep looking for Vi'. 

"Lily!" someone called behind her.

Lily turned around and her face broke into a pleasant smile "Mrs. Potter! Nice of you that you came"

Helen laughed "yes well, I couldn't miss such a party, especially with all the rumors that were going on for the last few days"

"What rumors?" asked Lily suspiciously.

"Something that involves you, a good show, popcorn and a pile of galleons. Know what it's all about?"

"No" Lily shook her head "I have no idea"

"Never mind" chuckled Helen "listens, I wanted to congratulate you for-"

"Becoming Head Girl?" asked Lily with a smile

"Yes! That's right. I admit that I was absolutely thrilled when I heard that you've been chosen"

"Really? Why?" asked Lily in surprise.

"It's because of James. He is not exactly the most serious and responsible boy there is, unless of course he wants to be. Let's just say that he's a bit too much _mischievous_ to take such roll in a series manner-"

_"Just a bit?_", Thought Lily to herself

"-So I'm glad that they've picked you, because I know that you are a mature person. And maybe you'll be able to- how to say it? - put some limits to James nature?"

"You want me to tame him?" asked Lily. _"Great, I'm going to baby sit Potter for a whole year";_ she thought bitterly, _"what joy_".

Helen looked at her with amusement "if you want to put it in those words, than yes. If you agree of course"

Lily sighed and was about to answer when she spotted Vi' standing alone, leaning on a wall "I'll see what I can do" she answered and excused herself, walking straight to Vi'.

"Hey, are you ok?" asked Lily with concern.

Vi' looked at her and smiled sadly but didn't respond.

"It didn't work out?" asked Lily again.

"No" sighed Vi' "I don't think he's interested, you know"

Lily held Vi's hand in her own and squeezed it slightly "of course Remus is interested, he just…" she hesitated for a second "maybe he's too shy or something, or maybe he's too afraid that you'll reject him"

"Because he's a werewolf?"

"You know about that?" Lily looked at her surprised.

Vi' gave a small smile and looked sideways at her friend "you're not the only smart person around here"

Lily shrugged in response "it's nothing to do with being smart" she got closer to her friend and said in a low voice "you just need to care enough to notice"

Vi' blushed slightly, but felt much better. Lily squeezed her hand one last time with assuring smile and left her, her mind already planning how to get her two friends together.

"Jamie! Come here for a second will you?"

"What is it Lils?" the small kid looked up at her with interest. Lily knelt beside him and asked in a low voice.

"Do you remember the plan of yours and Julie's concerning Remus and Vi'? The one I told you to drop the idea and let them hook up by themselves?"

"Yes…"

"Well, I changed my mind. Can you two pull it off now?"

"No problem!" smiled Jamie widely "I'll just go and get Julie"

"Where is she?"

"In the kitchen, making everyone popcorn for the _main event_" answered Jamie with a devilish smile, shooting Lily a meaningful look.

"I'm not even going to try to respond to that" muttered Lily and stood up.

"Where's Jess?"

"Kitchen as well" pointed Jamie behind him.

* * *

"Hey, how's Vi'?" asked Jess the moment Lily sat next to her. 

"Slightly put-out but she'll be alright" sighed Lily and put her elbow on the table and her chin in her palm "I think that Remus' little problem quite disturbing him so he's quite afraid to make a move"

Julie who was sitting next to them and flipping the pages of her black notebook looked up the moment Lily mentioned Remus' problem.

"Yeah, poor Remy" said Julie sadly "living with a linktoffeephobia isn't easy"

"A what?" asked Lily and Jess in surprise.

"A link-toffee-phobia" said Julie slowly and than looked sad again "he's afraid of linked toffees- I never knew there was such a thing…" Julie looked thoughtful for a minute before getting back to her notebook.

"Translation please" Jess looked at Lily with confusion.

"She meant Lycanthrope" Lily chuckled.

"Elli, Jessica won't you join us?" asked a sweet voice behind them.

Lily and Jess cringed and turned around to look at Angela who was standing with her hands around Derek's waist.

Angela wore a black top shirt that was sleeveless and exposed a lot of cleavage to an inch from her nipples. It was visible that she didn't wear her bra which probably was the reason Derek kept staring and drooling visibly. She wore as well a leather miniskirt and high heels shoes.

"Sure, we'll join you in a second" smiled Jess and then added in a low voice "can you spell slut?"

"s-l-u-t" called Julie aloud

"What did you say?" asked Angela sternly, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

"It's the capital letters for 'seductive trash universally teenagers'" smiled Julie innocently to her "it's a name of a bend" she added.

"Oh" Angela looked confused for a second but than smiled again "come on and join us at the back room" her eyes were fixed on Lily "all your friends are there"

"We're coming" answered Lily and smiled slightly to herself _"this is going to be fun"_ she thought to herself.

Last to leave was Julie. She jumped from the table and headed after the rest of the people.

"Let the game begin" she announced quietly and opened a new page in her notebook where there was one line that divided the page into two and on the top there was written in big letters: Lily vs. Angela

* * *

Lily sat on the couch, a glass of juice in her hand and looked around the small room. 

Bred, Janet and some other guys and girls which she could recognize only Luke and Ashley were leaning against the opposite wall with a drink in their hands, talking and laughing with each other.

Angela, Derek, James and Elany were sitting on one couch and Jess and Sirius on the other.

Lily sat alone on the armchair, drinking slowly her juice and ignoring the stares that she received from the rest of the people (which most of them were the gamblers)

"So Elly" said suddenly Angela, shooting her a pleasant smile "Derek told me that you're working for your living"

Lily raised one eyebrow and shrugged "yes I am"

"Oh, you _poor_ thing... Sweating and dirtying your hands in a hard work! Well, I've heard such cases when the parents can't afford to pay for the children, and the children need to go out and find a job. Such a shame…"

Lily stiffened when she heard her mention her parents, but didn't respond.

Angela was quite surprised when Derek pushed her, not in the gentlest way, from his lap.

"Evans is working?" sneered Elany, interrupting the conversation "I heard something about you teaching old women how to do yoga" Elany turned towards Lily with a smirk "does it really worth the money?"

To her surprise, Lily smiled a little "I don't know" she answered lightly "why don't you ask your mother? She's participating in one of the groups that I teach, after all"

Everyone except Elany her friends, James and Angela were laughing at this.

Julie sighed impatiently "will the cow mind to shut up?" she muttered to herself "how can someone bet around here if she'll keep interfering?"

"I pity your boyfriend really "continued Angela, faking a sad face "what he does if his girlfriend works all the time?"

"I don't have a boyfriend"

"Really?" Angela's eyes were full of triumph "so that means that you've never kissed a guy before?"

"I never said that" Lily answered, leaning back in her seat

"You're asking the wrong question" Jess interfered, shooting a smirk towards her cousin "the right question is how many times a _guy_ kissed Lily"

"Or how many tried" added Bred with a wink towards Lily.

Lily was suddenly very interested in the material of the armchair while everyone who knew what Bred was referring to, were howling with laughter.

Angela looked around her with a slight frown. Apparently she was missing here something.

"You've been kissed before?" she asked with a slight annoyance.

Lily stiffened "I don't see how this information is important" she said coldly "but yes"

"When was your first time, by the way?" Jess asked curiously.

Lily opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. She remembered when she was kissed for the first time, and remembered in what circumstances.

Her eyes become full with sorrow when she remembered in what emotional condition she was at the age of 12.

The kiss wasn't significant to her then, only years later she appreciated the true meaning of that simple kiss.

It came to comfort her, to tell her that she wasn't alone. It was her first and only 'unofficial' kiss.

"Fifteen" answered Derek.

Lily looked at him surprised. He smiled at her slightly, a smile that only she noticed.

He knew exactly what crossed her mind when she heard the question.

Her features softened when she heard him answer. After all, the answer wasn't far from the truth. Her 'official' kiss was at age 15.

"And how would you know?" Jess asked surprised.

Lily and Derek turned to look at her with raised eyebrows.

"Oh" she smiled sheepishly "right"

"So you've been kissed once and that's all? This is really sad. You've no idea what you're missing in a true relationship. Take me for example" Angela turned to Derek and stroked his chick "I never stay alone for long. I always in some relationship with a guy"

"Yes, no doubt" Lily chuckled softly "and no doubt that you're the kind that explores every _inch_ and possibility in those relationships"

Angela looked sharply at her "and I bet that you're the kind that practically _live_ in the library with no social life, preferring books as a company than people" she sneered "you're probably going to wait to your wedding to actually do it, right?"

"Well, I was never exactly in the mood to play kangaroo in bed" Lily said sweetly. "I do prefer to study in the library as you mentioned, which is different from other girls who all they care is their looks than their brain, and spend useless nights with different guys each time"

"Well… if you want to play the prude around here, go ahead" Angela rolled her eyes "while the rest of us know that it is perfectly normal and natural, the attraction that a man and a woman feel for each other".

Lily shrugged and sipped from her drink "Making love with the one you truly like is not a bad thing. But doing it with a different guy each time, is literally 'fucking'. And it seems to me simply useless. Unless you can assume that such girls are only _practicing_ it, just to get a job in this area" here eyes moved from Angela to Elany and back again when she said the last sentence. There were several gasps and chuckles from people and Angela looked like she was going to explode.

"Well, I don't think that _you're_ going to worry about that" Angela snapped at her "because I doubt that a guy would actually want to do it with _you_. Even if you'll go around, offering yourself"

Lily laughed "thank goodness that I've got enough dignity not to do that. I don't need some idiot to get under the covers with me, just to raise my self-esteem"

"Raise your self-esteem?" Angela asked coldly

"Yes" Lily smiled, looking directly at Angela's eyes "those girls act so 'cool' and confident, but the truth is quite the opposite. Their self-confidence is so low, that they jump into bed with the first pretty-face they can find, afraid that other 'cool' boys won't notice them. This makes their self-esteem drop even lower than the carpet.

I've got enough confident in myself to know my value, and I don't need some jerk to tell me lies just so he'll get laid"

"Not all of them ending like that" Angela said icily

Lily just shrugged "if you say so"

People started to talk again around them, sensing that this 'conversation' was over.

Jamie looked at them one last time, making sure that Lily and Angela won't return to a second round.

"It's safe" he whispered to Julie "we better go"

"Wait for me" Jess stood up and walked with them.

When they entered the kitchen, the first thing that they saw were Remus and Vi' sitting one next to each other at the kitchen table.

Julie nudged her brother at his side and pointed with a smile under the table, where Remus' and Vi's fingers were combined together.

"Where have you guys been? You've just missed the major confrontation between Lily and that devil-slut" asked Jess, sitting opposite them at the table.

"We were locked in a broom closet" answered Remus

"_You _won't know anything about it, would you?" Vi' looked suspiciously at the twins.

"We? How come every time something goes wrong around here, it's our fault?" Julie asked mock-insulted.

"Because it usually is" Jess commented dryly

"Fine" huffed Julie "but we didn't lock you"

"We simply asked 'Ouch' to put a charm on the door, so it won't open until you confess your 'undying love' to each other " continued Jamie."And as we can see, it worked perfectly" he added with a sly smile.

Vi' blushed and Remus just smiled, casting a look at her "we talked" he said.

"We were squeezed together" said a slightly grump Vi' "what else could we do?"

"Squeezed?" Jess looked at then confusedly "but our broom closet is huge. Five people can enter it and there would be still a room to stretch your arms"

"Not really. Ouch diminished the space, so two people could barely even breath in there from lack of space" Julie explained

The three teens stared at them and then Jess shook her head "I'm not going even to try, I have a feeling that Lily gave a permission to do it"

The twins just smiled but didn't answer.

"So what did we miss?" Remus asked with interest.

"Angela and Lily started to throw insults at each other" Jess smiled widely.

"What did they say?"

"Angela called Lils a virgin bookworm prude nerd, who won't be able to attract a man even if she'll wore a sign that will say 'I want to get-' - you know" Julie waved her hand, letting the rest to continue the sentence themselves

"And Lils called Angela a shallow brainless whore with self-esteem at the size of a bug" Jamie said.

"The score?" Vi' asked.

Julie counted all the tics that she wrote "Angela: 9 points, Lils: 9 points"

"Lils gets another point bonus because she was the first to start the fight" added Jamie.

Julie corrected it in her notebook and looked at her watch "its past ten" she flipped a few pages and started to cross some names "Jess, you're out" she announced. Jessica groaned in response. Here go her twelve galleons…

"Vi', you've got another ten minutes before losing the bet"

Vi' sighed and looked quite desperately at Jess "there is no chance to ask Lily to kiss Derek in the next ten minutes, right?"

* * *

Derek walked with Angela by his side, towards a small group who were laughing at something. 

"Hey guys, having fun?" he smiled at them.

"Yeah, the only thing that is blowing it, it's all the grownups. Or else we could have a _real_ party" said one of the young men.

Lily chuckled softly and shook her head "like I ever going to let you get drunk and destroy the house, Luke"

Luke groaned in objection "I wouldn't _destroy_ the house, where on earth have you got that idea?"

Lily folded her arms on her chest and raised her eyebrows at him "oh really? And what about the last party at the Jacksons? I heard you broke two windows, a table, a vase, a lamp, a picture, somebody's arm, your leg… should I continue?"

The people surrounding her erupted in laughter which Luke joined "yep, that was one hell of a party"

"Flower, I'm looking for Jess and Vi'"

"Kitchen" Lily answered

Derek turned to Angela "I'll be right back"

"Sure thing, baby" Angela smiled and gave him a deep kiss.

Derek opened one eye and winked at Lily, who depressed her urge to roll her eyes, or gag.

When Derek left, Angela grabbed Lily by her arm and dragged her to the corner of the room.

"Now you listen to me, you little dwarf" Angela hissed "I know what you playing at and you won't be able to break us up"

"You already said that when you first arrived" Lily said casually

"I did, but I can see that you still didn't realize that. Derek is _mine_. He loves _me_. So I'll suggest you back down or you might get hurt, because there is _nothing_ that you can do to us, clear?"

"Crystal" Lily smiled sweetly.

"Good" Angela sneered. Her eyes examined Lily's clothes and her sneer deepened "how pathetic. I really pity your parents for giving a birth to such an ugly thing as _you_. Unless of course it runs in the blood? You know, from mother to daughter…?" she laughed as she walked to sit with Elany again.

Lily's hands were clenched into fists and her breath was slow and deep. This time, this girl has passed every limit.

_No one_ insulted her parents in front of her without paying.

* * *

Derek entered the kitchen with a smirk "I believe the bet is off" 

Vi', Jess, Remus and the twins looked at him with surprise "what?"

James and Sirius who happened to sit with them in the kitchen looked at them with confusion "what bet?" Sirius asked.

"What do you mean _off_?" Jamie demanded to know.

"Off. I'm not breaking up with Angela tonight, so forget about it"

"No! You can't do that! You know how many people paid on Lils to break you two up?" Julie called, waving her notebook in front of his face.

Lily entered the kitchen at that very moment, still fuming on Angela and stopped behind Derek who still didn't notice her.

"I'm sorry to say that, but I think that Lily won't be able to do anything. Face it, Angela won and Lily lost"

_"Over my dead body",_ Lily thought angrily.

She turned Derek around, grabbed his collar and pulled him towards her, her lips meeting his. One of her hands released its hold on his shirt and ran through his hair, making it easier for her to deepen the kiss.

Derek had to grab the dining table for support, his mind trying to recover from the shock. The shock, however, faded quickly as he felt her hot tongue exploring his mouth and her body pressed tightly to his, so he could feel each of her curves through her clothes.

She broke slowly the kiss, slightly breathless, but didn't draw away. "You were saying?" she whispered.

Derek stared at her for a moment before giving her a lopsided grin "stay here" he whispered back.

"Angela! We need to talk!" he called, leaving the kitchen with Jamie behind him..

The room suddenly erupted with loud wolf-whistling and cheering. Lily turned around to see Bred, Janet, Luke, and their friends standing near Julie with smug faces.

She rolled her eyes and sat down next to Jess that looked at her half-surprised and half-amused.

"I can't believe you just did that" she said.

"Me neither" Lily muttered back.

"Never thought you had it in you, Evans" Sirius smirked. Lily looked at him and James with surprise. She didn't even notice they were there.

"It was worth the wait, that's for sure" laughed Janet.

"I never thought I'll live the day to see Lily kissing a guy without causing him a physical pain" Bred remarked.

Lily blushed at this as the others laughed cheerfully.

"11:09 the official break up" Jamie announced, entering the kitchen.

Julie wrote it down, and circled it with her pen. "All done" she smiled.

"Who won?"

"Won what?" James looked around him with a puzzled expression

Julie looked at the list of names and underlined them "the closest who got to the true hour is…" her eyes ran along the names until she spotted the one she was looking for. She looked up and smiled "Remy"

Everybody looked shocked at Remus who blushed slightly.

"You too?" VI' asked surprised.

"Well I…"

"I can't believe it" Lily shook her head, giving Remus a disbelieve look. "I thought that you were supposed to be the mature person around here"

"Sorry Lily" he looked at her apologetic "but frankly, it's one of the only interesting things that goes around here"

"And who are you to speak of mature actions, when you gave those two demons permission to lock us in a broom closet?" Vi' glared at her.

Lily just smiled and shrugged "it still worked. You two were getting together so slow, hell could freeze ten times before you two would even get some courage to kiss each other"

There were snickering and chuckles at the background when suddenly there was a loud slam of a door and a furious yell "YOU!"

Lily turned around to see Angela, with red face looking at her with rage.

"You…" her voice was unsteady from hatred "this is your entire fault… you're the one who made him break up with me, didn't you?"

"An ugly dwarf like me?" asked Lily sarcastically.

"Why you-" Angela walked to Lily and raised her hand to slap her, but Lily quickly caught her wrist and the second one, who came to finish the job of the first.

She moved Angela's arm above her head and tightened it behind her, so now Angela's back was facing her.

"If you didn't notice, Angela" Lily said calmly "you've got audience"

Angela's eyes moved from on face to another "let me go, you bitch" she said through gritted teeth and struggled to release her wrists.

"I will, if you'll calm down"

After seeing that Angela won't be doing anything hasty she released her and sat back down.

"I'll suggest you'll leave before humiliating yourself any further" she added coldly.

"You heard her, get out of our house" Julie called when Angela didn't move at all.

"Yeah, have a nice life and don't bother to come to visit" Jamie added.

Angela huffed and raised her chin high "fine. Jessica, pack my bags!" she ordered.

Jess smiled broadly at her "they're waiting for you outside"

"Bye bye" Julie waved.

"Hmph!" Angela cast a last look full of loath at Lily before leaving the kitchen.

"Ladies and gems, Angela has left the building!" Jamie yelled.

Lily laughed when people around her cheered loudly, when suddenly someone turned her around and kissed her.

The noise around her turned from cheering to cat-calls and snickering.

"Oh guys, c'mon! Can't you wait at least until we leave the room?" Jess asked.

Lily broke the kiss and looked up at Derek's eyes that were full of laughter and something else. She smiled slyly when he winked secretly at her and turned to look at Jess, arching one eyebrow.

"Do you mind to hurry up?"

People continued laughing exiting the room, but Lily and Derek didn't wait for the last person to leave before continuing snogging.

"I forgot how much I liked your kisses" he murmured against her lips. Lily chuckled softly "I'm glad you remembered" she leaned her forehead on his, looking at his eyes with a slight mischievous smile "is it just me, or are you raising the price that I need to pay to make you dump those cats that you're bringing here?"

"So you've noticed?" he smiled. "I think my next request will be… lets see…what do you think about a dinner under the full moon…" he bent his head and started kissing lightly her neck "…with a 'desert'"

Lily closed her eyes when she felt pleasant chills running down her spine "sounds really cliché" she said almost breathlessly "and don't push your luck. If you want a 'desert' you better call back your ex-cat or else I'm going to practice on you my 'knockout' hit if you even dare to try"

Derek chuckled and cupped her chick with his palm "I thought you'd say that. And trust me; I don't want to test your patience"

Lily smiled and her eyes fell suddenly on the door. Her smile disappeared immediately and she leaned with her elbow on the table "do you need any help, Potter?" she asked coldly.

James was leaning on the doorway and looking at the scene in front of him with mixture of puzzlement, surprise and a slight disgust. "No" he answered just as coldly.

"If you don't mind, we're quite busy here and we'll appreciate if you leave" Derek gave him half a smile.

James nodded, still not taking his eyes from Lily who returned his gaze with a blank look. He suddenly smirked at her, which looked more like a sneer "you really are a girl full of surprises, aren't you Evans?"

"And it's your business. Because…?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

James rolled his eyes and left without another word.

Lily looked at him through narrow eyes. She didn't like his tone one bit.

"Say, Derek? How fast can you get me a hunting gun?"

"A hunting gun?" he asked with surprise.

Lily shook her head "never mind. I think I'll use poison instead, it doesn't leave marks and I can make it as painful as I want"

* * *

**A/N: weird ending… but what ever. Well, I was just thinking, that because it took me so long to update, I thought to give you guys a bonus:**

**Each reader who wants to know a certain detail about what will happen in future chapters can ask and I promise that I'll answer. BUT, I'll answer one question only. So if you're going to bump me with questions, I would answer only one.**

**But do me a favor and don't ask too general. Like: 'what's going to happen next?' Or something like that.**

**Anyway, here are some details on Lily (take it as an extra bonus :))**

**-just to make it clear: LILY WEAR HER DESGUISE ALL THE TIME EXCEPT WHEN SHE GOES TO SWIM WITH MELL OR WHEN THE SPELL FADES **

**OUT.**

**- Lily and Derek won't be a couple after this chapter. If they wanted to be together they would have gone out years ago. Lily doesn't date guys, she finds it useless and from her experience from hanging around with Derek, Bred, Janet, Luke and a few people more she believes that the only thing that a man wants from her is sex. So you can understand what Bred meant when he said that many tried to kiss her.**

**-Lily hate James. And I mean, really _really_ hate him. And James see her as a good punching bag. So you can guess that it's going to take a lot of things to happen to change that between them, to something that is even close to liking.**

**-I'm going to focus most of this fic on Lily's life. I won't be describing Vi's or Jess' relationships, unless it's important for the plot. Sorry**.

**So all is left for you to do is REVIEW… **


	8. Last day of summer

**A/N****: hi guys! Really sorry for not updating for so long. So blame school, my stupid computer and the fact that i didn't know what to write next. **

**Well anyway, in this chapter you'll meet several new characters. So i hope you'll like it. Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: i don't own anything you recognize, and i definitely don't own the songs.

* * *

**

Chapter eight: Last day of summer

The back room was full of boxes, hangers, and parcels of clothes and materials which were piled one on top of the other and protected with preserving charms. The young girl held her wand in one hand and a lamp in the other, and scanned the inscriptions on the boxes with concentration. The poor light didn't help to understand fully the signs that looked similar to goblins' signatures.

The girl put the lamp on a box and with her lighted wand she read the label that said '_gowns_'.

"Finally" she sighed in relief. Madam Malkin apparently couldn't find a darker corner to put it aside, she thought to herself and with a swish of her wand she levitated the large box in the air, took the lamp and went out the door.

Why madam Malkin wanted those gowns was beyond her understanding. And in the end of the summer, no less! The girl shook her head, opened the box and started to hang the gowns on the hangers. She straightened any wrinkles and scanned the unique dresses that, even she could admit without hesitation, were very beautiful. There were long and short gowns in every color imaginable, few with low necklines, some sleeveless, other with beads or laces.

Despite herself, the girl watched closely each gown before hanging it on. Her eyes widened suddenly when she reached to the last dress that lay in the bottom of the box. The gown was blue-night color, made of satin and seemed to flow when the girl touched it. It didn't have any additions and was smooth and elegant looking.

"Pretty isn't it?" asked a young witch with a smile, watching the girl's expression.

Lily looked at the woman and smiled in return.

"Very" she agreed. She hung it carefully next to the others and glanced briefly at her boss. "You're planning to sell them?"

"Perhaps," madam Malkin looked thoughtful at Lily. "If you want I can give you a discount for that dress."

Lily smiled thankfully, but shook her head. "It's alright; I'm not into dresses anyway."

"You don't like them?" the witch asked curiously.

"I can handle dresses. Skirts of course, are a completely different story…"

"It's a real waste, especially with a body like yours…"

Lily smiled, but didn't answer. The older witch waved her wand at the empty box, sending it to the back room. She took the gowns to the other part of her shop and motioned Lily to follow her.

"Tomorrow you're going back to school, nervous?"

"I guess," Lily shrugged halfheartedly. "It's my last year so I kinda have mixed feelings about returning. I've left a good friend there, Charlie made a prefect, the twins are going to their first year, my two friends are going out but on top of that, I'm going to share the Heads' quarters with the person I loath the most." She sighed and concluded sarcastically, "Yep, can't wait."

"Sounds like an eventful year," madam Malkin chuckled.

"I'll be lucky if I'll survive," agreed Lily with a half smile.

Madam Malkin laughed in response. "I'm sure you will. I believe that all there is to worry about are the young men who will swirl around you once school will start, right?" she asked with a wink.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Trust me; this is the _last_ thing that concerns me. Besides, I'm not interested in getting linked with someone right now."

"Really?" the older witch looked at her surprised. "Why? You're a pretty girl, and you definitely don't have any problem to charm men."

"Charm?"

"Of course. Like last week when you flirted with that customer and convinced him to buy more than he intended."

"I didn't flirt with him!" Lily protested immediately.

Madam Malkin looked at her with amusement. "His wife was convinced that you did."

At that very moment the small sound of a bell was heard in the shop.

"New costumer. I'll take care of that." Lily offered immediately and avoided the knowing glint in her boss's eyes.

Lily took a deep breath and tried to ignore the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach. Madam Malkin was not exactly far from the truth. Lily was aware that she had a certain ease when it came to dealing with men, something she probably got from her mother.

Lily recognized the teenage girl that entered the shop by the name of Alice Parker. Alice was one of the nice Gryffindor's seventh year girls and Lily liked her as a person.

That's why she always wondered why on earth Alice was one of Elany's friends.

"Need help?" she asked in a friendly voice.

Alice turned around startled then relaxed when she saw that it was a girl around her age. Probably madam Malkin's assistant, she reasoned.

"Emm… no that's ok, I'm just looking around."

Lily smiled. "Well, if you need to find something just ask me and I'll show you where it is." She looked briefly at the clothes that Alice was checking and shook her head. "You need a darker shade of blue. It'll emphasize your eyes much more than that color."

Alice looked at the shirt that she examined and hesitated, "Are you sure?"

"Trust me. It's my job to be sure of this kind of stuff."

Alice smiled back, "Well, thanks." She stretched her hand forward, "I'm Alice."

Lily's smile widened and she shook Alice's hand, "Lily Evans."

Alice's eyes widened in surprise. "Evans?" She scanned the girl in front of her with amazed expression. "Wow, I didn't recognize you. You've changed." Then she hurriedly added, "In a good way I mean."

Lily bit back her laughter, "Don't worry about it, I'll be back to my usual form when school will start."

Alice raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Why? This style suits you much better."

She looked at Lily's clothes that lay slightly loose on her body, but still showed the curves of her body form. Her hair was tied down loosely and she didn't wear her glasses.

_At least now you can see her face_, Alice thought to herself.

Lily gave her a half smile and shrugged, "If you say so."

Alice bit her bottom lip in thoughtfulness. "Tell you what," she said suddenly. "How about you'll join the party this evening? James is throwing a party at his house for celebrating the last day of vacation. If you want I think I can get you an invitation."

"Hell no!" Lily looked appalled and disgusted at the idea. "No offence or anything, but I prefer to stay at home than to go to a party that Potter is organizing."

Alice looked at her uncertainly for a moment but then smiled, "Well, suits yourself. But if you'll change your mind just owl a word to me, it's tonight at 9."

"I'll remember," Lily waved goodbye at her and muttered under her breath. "Not that I'll have a chance to forget it, it's the only thing that Jess and Vi' are nagging me about to join since they received their invitations."

-

Vi' and Remus ducked behind the bush, clutching their wands tightly, and tried to figure out from where the next attack will come. Vi' wiped her forehead with her hand. She had no doubt that she looked a complete mess. Wet strands got loose from her ponytail and her wet clothes were dirty from mud. Remus who was wet from head to foot didn't look better.

"You think that they're still around?" she whispered.

"No idea, I can't see them," Remus whispered back.

Vi' sighed in relief, "You know, no matter how many times we play this game, Lily and Derek still win each round."

"I know," Remus smiled and shifted closer to her. "But you can't deny that it's fun."

"If fun means to get soaked to the bone by the deadliest couple that walks the earth in the first five seconds of the game, than you're right," she said sarcastically. "We're having the time of our life."

Remus leaned closer and gave her a quick kiss her in response. A visible blush crawled to her cheeks and she glanced sideways at him. She had to admit that there were some advantages in the Bubble fight.

"So," she said in an innocent voice. "What do you wanna do until Lily and Derek find us?"

Remus smirked slightly and leaned much closer. "I have a couple of ideas," he murmured.

A few feet away two people were standing behind a couple of bushes and observing. Lily twirled her wand with her fingers and watched with a soft smile the snogging couple. She leaned on the trunk and glanced at her game-partner.

"You think we should interrupt them?"

Derek shrugged and leaned on the other side of the tree. "Don't know. And besides, they broke rule number ten of the game."

Lily rose her eyebrows in question, "Which is?"

Derek smiled and indicated with his hand towards Remus' and Vi's direction, "Not to snog your partner while you're still in the game."

Lily laughed quietly, "Like Jess and Louis?"

"Yeah," Derek smirked. "I don't think that her current boyfriend understood the game's rules. Not that it would help him," he added. "We would win the game in one way or another."

Lily glanced back at her friends and sighed. "C'mon," she muttered to Derek. "Let's give them a few more minutes."

She straightened and walked away. Derek watched Lily's face become grim and guessed what she was thinking.

"Worried about tomorrow?" he asked.

Lily shrugged, "Not really. I'm more anxious about the Head Girl position. It's not that I'm scared of doing the work, but it's the fact with who I'm suppose to do it."

Derek slung his arm around her shoulders and gave her a friendly squeeze, "If he causes you troubles just give me a call and I'll come and break his bones."

Lily laughed at this, "Uh-huh. And I suppose that your boss will give you permeation to come to do that? Give me a break Derek. Mr. Potter is a cool person but I doubt that he'll let you send his son to the hospital wing in 248 pieces."

Derek gave her a lopsided grin, "Then you better do something about it. It's the first time that I see you holding back your anger at someone. And don't tell me you don't want to pay him back. I saw that look in your eyes each time you looked at him. The word revenge was written all over your face."

"You have no idea how much," she muttered. "But he's just not worth my energy. He's an arrogant asshole and I better ignore him. If I'll start to pay him back on each and every prank he pulled on me..."

"Still, I'm surprised that you have so much tolerance towards him."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I know," she said. "And trust me, my patience is running thin. If I'll be able to avoid him most of the time maybe I'll be able to fight the urge to throw him from the astronomy tower."

Derek chuckled and gave her shoulder another squeeze. "C'mon, let's get something to drink."

Lily glanced behind her back, "But what about Vi' and Remus?"

"Trust me," he smirked. "I don't think they want us to interrupt them."

-

"Thanks for the recipe, Mrs. Balkon." Lily smiled towards the old woman who sat in front of her. She tried to leave the house for the last half hour without any success.

It was now 9.30 pm and she felt quite exhausted from the busy day she had. After finishing the Bubble fight four hours ago, she remembered her last stop of the day was at Mrs. Balkon's house. For some unknown reason, Mrs. Balkon insisted that Lily will give her a last home visit before she left to school.

She sighed quietly and continued to smile politely like she did for the last three hours. She knew that the old muggle liked her very much, almost like she liked the juicy gossip she picked up from her friends.

In fact, Lily suspected that Mrs. Balkon liked her because she was the only young person who actually had the patience to listen to her "news", and the fact that most of these "news" were connected to Lily in one way or another.

"Not at all, my dear," Mrs. Balkon chuckled softly and put her cup of tea on the table. "Would you like another piece of cake?"

Lily stifled a groan and shook her head slightly. She feared that the stupid smile will never get off her face after this visit, "I'm quite full, thank you."

"Of course," Mrs. Balkon beamed at her and gave her a pleasant smile that made Lily to think of vampire who's looking for his next prey.

Lily shook the thought immediately from her mind and watched Mrs. Balkon with a blank expression she always used when she sensed that she was about to get investigated.

"So," Mrs. Balkon sipped from her cup and looked at Lily with a curious expression. "You return back to school tomorrow?"

"Yes, indeed," Lily tried not to sigh again.

Every summer was the same. Since Mrs. Balkon learned that Lily is going to the same school that the Benory's children are going, she tried to dig up information about Hogwarts from Lily, who found it amusing at first and just plain annoying at the end. Apparently this woman never learned how to give up.

"It must be hard to live far from home most of the year."

"Mmm."

"This school must be located quite far, if you need to catch a train so early in the morning."

"Mmhhmm."

Mrs. Balkon stirred her tea with a small spoon for a few seconds before trying another technique, "Is the school material difficult?"

"Reasonable."

"I must admit that I've never heard of this school before."

"Most of the people haven't," Lily answered pleasantly, trying to figure out how much longer she needs to tolerate this slow and boring torture.

"Is it a good school, Lily?"

"Not bad."

Mrs. Balkon looked thoughtful for a moment. "I sure hope so," she said in a surprising serious voice. "My granddaughter's niece is learning there."

Lily nearly chocked on her tea. "Your granddaughter's niece?" she coughed "What's her name?"

"Rita Skeeter," Mrs. Balkon smiled. "A lovely young girl. So nice with a tad bit of curiosity," Mrs. Balkon chuckled softly. "Maybe you've met her?"

"Maybe," Lily shrugged trying to conceal her laughter.

From her experience, Rita Skeeter was far from lovely or nice- unless she wanted something from you. And her "tad bit of curiosity" was a mild term of the fact that the girl was simply nosy (in the most polite interpretation of the word).

Mrs. Balkon apparently understood that she won't get more than a four verbal answer out of Lily.

"Well," she smiled at her. "I don't want to keep you up from your packing. It was nice of you to drop by and visit me."

Lily didn't mention the fact that Mrs. Balkon insisted of this visit or the fact that she packed already everything a few days ago.

"No problem," she smiled and kissed the old lady's cheek in good bye.

Once outside, she sighed deeply in relief. She stretched her arms upwards and threw her head backwards, feeling her muscles protesting slightly. She massaged her neck before continuing to walk her way home. She considered taking a shortcut but that meant that she needed to pass Potter's house.

Decisions, decisions, she sighed. She wanted to avoid any argument between her and Potter. She figured that once school will start she'll have enough of them to last her for a lifetime.

_Oh well_, she thought gloomily. Everyone is probably inside his house so it was less likely that she would cross someone she knows. And besides, it was unlikely that someone will recognize her so easily. The meeting today with Alice proved it to her.

She froze in her place when she saw a group of girls a few feet in front of her surrounding two young men.

Apparently she was wrong; she realized when she recognized a few girls from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

She walked much more cautiously and looked suspiciously at the Potter house near her, like expecting any second to see James or Sirius walking out of it.

She stopped in her place when she heard someone yelling, "Angel!"

She looked back at the group and realized with surprise that the two young men that her classmates were surrounding eagerly were actually Bred and Steve.

"Oh god," she muttered with wide eyes.

Her shock was replaced with amusement when she saw the hopeless expression on Steve's face. Lily bit back a snicker and smirked at them both.

Bred sent a charming smile towards the girl that was clinging to his arm and tried to figure out how on earth he and Steve landed in this situation. They both were searching for Lily when Derek mentioned that she went to the old muggle's house a couple of hours ago.

They decided to take a shortcut and met with a pair of cute girls. Naturally they flirted a little, but when they wanted to bid them good bye, they realized that the girls had other plans for them.

He calculated how to shake them off, when he heard Steve's yell. He looked up and met Lily's eyes. Her hand was covering her mouth and her shoulders shook slightly. Bred had a suspicion that she was laughing at them both.

More desperate than annoyed he mouthed towards her _'help.'_

She smirked at him and raised one eyebrow as if to question that he was sure.

He sent her a glare and she just bit her bottom lip to prevent herself from bursting in laughter.

"Bred! Steve! What a pleasant surprise!" she yelled cheerfully and pushed a few girls aside to hug them both.

"Save me!" Steve whispered in her ear urgently. "I'm too weak to resist them!"

Lily giggled softly and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek in response. "Just give me a few seconds," she muttered back.

"We'll give you anything you want, just hurry!"

Lily smirked at Bred and gave him a kiss too, "Don't tell me that THE Bred Lorrans is unable to avoid a couple of schoolgirls?"

"Don't you smirk at me you little sadist," he breathed in her ear mock angrily. "Just do something. Pull their hair, break their nails, anything!"

"I don't hit girls," Lily released them with a smile.

"There's always a first time," they both muttered.

Lily continued to smile and linked her arms with theirs.

"So boys," she said, looking from one face to another. "I see that you arrived just now. You must want something to drink."

"What are you doing?" Bred muttered when he saw where she was leading them.

"Trying to save you," she whispered back, her smile never fading. "Just play along."

"We need to talk to you," Steve glanced back where he saw the group of girls following them closely.

"Inside," she muttered back. "After we dodge the group of your new love fans."

At the front door stood Remus with Vi' at his side. They both stopped talking in surprise when they saw Lily standing in front of them.

"You're here!" Vi' looked at her happily. "So you finally agreed to come after all?"

"Let's just say that I reconsidered my options," Lily smiled back at her. "Can I join the party?" she asked Remus.

"Yeah, sure," he moved his hand in an invited motion. "Go right ahead."

"Enjoy," Vi' added, but she wasn't looking at her but at Bred and Steve that stood beside her. She looked back at Lily and winked at her. _'Nice catch,'_ she mouthed towards her.

Lily didn't bother to correct her, knowing fully well that Vi' won't believe her even if she tried.

Lily dragged Bred and Steve through the crowd towards the corner of the kitchen where you couldn't hear the music so loudly.

"So, what's up?" she asked them and sat on the edge of the table.

"Well," Bred sat on the chair and stretched his legs forward. He got back to his easy-going composure like the last few minutes never happened. "We brought a special message from Kyle and the rest of the band."

Lily looked questionably at Steve who was busy eating from the snacks on the table. He pilled a plate and sat beside Bred.

"You see Angel," he chewed and swallowed. "We kinda thought to have a kind of a good luck party for you, Kyle and Robin before you three return to school. After all, we won't be able to see each other so often after tomorrow.".

"Tonight?" Lily asked and glanced at the watch on the wall.

"Actually," Bred checked his watch. "It'll start in half an hour. We already told Derek, and he said he'll meet us there. The last person to tell here, is you. Janet and Ashley arranged so that we'll be the only people to sing on stage."

The last part caught Lily's attention, "So Ashley and Robin are already there?"

"Yep."

"Good," Lily sighed in relief. "I was afraid I won't be able to say a proper good bye to them." She thought for a second and shrugged, "Alright, I don't have any other plans for tonight and I could use a party."

Steve smiled at her. "That's what we told Kyle but he didn't agree to listen. He wanted to make one hundred percent sure that you'll come. He got quite desperate," he added.

Lily frowned, "Don't tell me that he has trouble again with Mr. T."

Bred nodded, "Mr. T is enslaving him in the night club. Kyle insisted that you'll come and save him for at least a couple of hours."

Lily shook her head with a half smile, "Oh well, sure. Why not? I'm sure I can convince Mr. T to let Kyle have fun at the last night of summer vacation."

"Well, that's done," Bred stood up and glanced at the crowd of people. "Any idea how we're supposed to get out?"

"Let's keep together and move quickly to the exit. If one of us is not back out the rest are getting back inside to search for him."

"Alright" Lily jumped from the table and stood at the entrance of the door. "Let's hope it work."

She followed them through the dancing bodies with a difficulty because she was much shorter than the rest of the people. She felt someone pushing her aside and the next moment she was standing by the wall. She struggled to continue but came to realize that it was impossible.

She leaned backwards to the wall and sighed in annoyance. "Great," she muttered. "Now how am I suppose to get out?"

"The front door is the closest option for you," answered a voice next to her.

Lily turned her head quickly and locked her gaze with a pair of hazel eyes.

_Wonderful_, she thought sarcastically _this day just gets better and better_.

She was standing shoulder to shoulder with James Potter in a room that you could hardly move in.

His eyes narrowed immediately and a slow sly smile curved on his lips when he realized who it was.

"Evans," he nodded his head in a formal greeting. "Fancy meeting you here. Don't remember I invited you to my party."

"Mmm," she looked around her for a sign from Bred or Steve. Where the hell they disappeared to?

"So you got curios and decided to crush in?"

Lily looked back at him like she just realized he was there.

"Don't worry, Potter," she said in a bored tone. "In the first opportunity I'll leave your precious house and party alone."

"Why?" his smile widened and he got closer to her. "Since you bothered so much to enter, it would be rude of me to throw you out."

"If you say so," she said distractedly.

Her eyes moved from one person to another. They sure have noticed that she wasn't outside. A soft tug made her glance down just to notice that James' fingers were playing with the ends of her hair.

What the-

She glanced up to see James' smiling face a few inches from hers. "I really like the changes you did with yourself," he muttered and run his knuckles down her cheek. He cupped her chin and rubbed lightly his thumb along her jaw line, "You almost look pretty.".

Lily gritted her teeth angrily at his touch. It took every bit of self control she possessed not to break his fingers and knee him in the groin. Then she glanced over his shoulder and sighed with relief.

"About time you noticed. What took you so long?"

James looked slightly surprised and taken aback when he saw her smile warmly at him. He was about to say something when a voice behind him interrupted him.

"Sorry, babe. I had trouble locating you. You're not exactly a girl you can notice so easily."

"Next time I'll stand on a table," she said sarcastically. Then she glanced around, "Where's Bred?"

"Outside," Steve took her hand in his and noticed James' gaze following the gesture.

He disliked him immediately. Steve considered Lily a part of his closer friends and was very protective of her each time he saw some idiot checking her out. And this guy had the nerve to touch her! Even he didn't have the chance to do that at first. After his endless tries to hit on her (she go annoyed in the end and threatened to break his skull with a chair if he won't stop), he settled down in a comfortable friendship with her.

"I'm not interrupting something, am I?"

"No" Lily answered casually, not noticing the glares Steve and James exchanged. She looked around her with a slight desperation, "Any ideas?"

"One. But you're not going to like it."

Lily looked up at him suspiciously, "What kind of idea?"

In response he grabbed her by the waist and picked her up easily, like she was some kind of a puppet, and put her over his shoulder. Lily dangled upside down and crossed her arms over her chest.

"_This_ is your brilliant idea?"

Steve smiled at her shoes and hugged her thighs with one arm, "Better than nothing." He walked through the crowd, trying not to make Lily's head bump into sharp corners. "By the way," he said aloud so she could hear him over the noise of the music. "Did I ever mention how sexy your legs are?"

A sharp pain behind his knee made him jump like he was electrified. Steve looked down to catch a last glance of a wooden stick that disappeared with a quick snap of Lily's fingers.

"Damn," he muttered. "I forgot you have a wand."

"Then I'll suggest you keep it in mind," she answered dryly. She shifted her upper body to have a look of what was in front of them. "Cool air," she said in relief when Steve put her back on her feet. "Finally."

Bred stood up from the side walk he was sitting on and smiled at both of them.

"Ready to party?"

"You have no idea how much," smiled Lily when he slung his arm around her shoulders.

-

The club was lightened by lamps and candles on the walls and tables. The 'goblin's hat' was a cozy large inn, and was considered a night club for muggles, wizards and witches alike. When she came here for the first time five years ago, she felt immediate liking towards the place. She worked there several summers, whether in cleaning the tables or singing on stage. This place was like a second home for her after Hogwarts.

She greeted with a smile a few waitresses and several regular customers. She scanned the club to try to recognize one of her friends.

"Angel!" a blond girl with blue-grey eyes waved cheerfully at her. "Gosh! I haven't seen you in ages," the girl hugged Lily tightly making her laugh.

"It sure seemed that way," Lily agreed and took a step back to observe her friend. "I see that the vacation on the beach came handy."

Robin smiled back at her and twirled in her place, "If it wasn't for this damn light I could have shown you my new tan I worked on the last five weeks." She linked her arm with Lily's and leaded her towards the nearest table. "But since we're all here and unfortunately- back to school the next day- I'm certainly ready to Rock'n'roll till dawn."

"Unfortunately that won't happen," interrupted them a feminine voice. A young woman stood next to them and sent a stern stare towards Robin. "You've got school, and I'm definitely not spending my morning trying to drag you out of bed."

Robin just rolled her eyes in response and muttered towards Lily, "Don't mind Ash, her boyfriend dumped her again."

Lily snickered and immediately stood up before a sisters' fight started.

"Hey, Ashley."

Ashley smiled back at her and hugged her just as Robin did beforehand, "I'm glad you decided to come."

"Wouldn't dare to miss it," Lily smiled back and then sighed sadly. "It's too bad that it's the last night that the whole group is together."

"Don't remind me," Robin said gloomily. "I'll get depressed all over again."

Lily glanced from one face to another in question, "You could always visit me in Hogsmeade, right?"

"Maybe," Robin agreed, though she sounded skeptical. "For me it's going to be almost impossible. It's not so easy to skip a day in my school without everyone's notice. I guess the fact that you're going to decide on the Hogsmeade weekends can help me prepare my escapes." She paused for a second before looking at Lily in confusion, "Remind me exactly _why_ you were chosen Head Girl?"

Lily chuckled softly and shrugged, "Probably because of my grades."

Robin snorted, "Yeah right. I know you've got a pretty good brain but this Dumbledore guy suppose to be smart, from all the rumors I've heard. He's putting you and, from what you told me, some idiotic troublemaker as the Heads. How ironic. Making two rule-breakers instruct prefects."

"I don't have in my record anything about breaking a school rule," Lily mentioned.

"Only because no one ever caught you," Robin pointed out.

Lily's smile widened, "How _very_ true."

"C'mon girls," Ashley put her hands on the girl's shoulder. "Let's find everyone. The night is still young and I want to have a blasting good bye party for my favorite little sisters!" she said cheerfully.

Lily cast a weird glance towards Robin. Her friend only shrugged helplessly and mouthed _'drunk'_ back at her.

Lily glanced up at Ashley. "Ash," she asked carefully. "How much did you drink?"

"Oh, only one glass, don't worry."

"Actually, she drank three," corrected Robin. "We're going to be lucky if she won't drop on stage during our song."

"This is none of your business," Ashley glared at her.

"Of course it is," Robin snapped back. "You're my big sister. Who else is supposed to take care of you, if not me? And I don't see why you still wailing about this guy. He was a jerk from the start. Don't know what you saw in him in the first place."

Ashley looked angry for a second before sighing in defeat, "I know. I didn't even like him at first. He was an egotistic bustard," she sighed again. "But the sex was great."

"Please! Spare us from the details."

"Girls! There you are!"

"Janet," Robin called relieved. "My savior. Can you take care of Ash?"

Janet looked at Ashley with concern, "What's wrong?"

But it was Lily who answered, "She's mourning over some ex of hers."

Janet put an arm around Ashley's shoulder and hugged her one-armed. She then looked at Lily and smiled, "Nice of you to drop by. You ready to have some fun?"

"I'm ready to sing and dance the whole night," Lily smiled back. She looked around her with interest, "Where're the men?"

"Well, Derek, Steve and Bred are over there," Janet pointed towards a dark corner of the club. "Flirting with some strangers. And I think that Kyle is still hiding."

Lily looked at her surprised, "Hiding? From Mr. T?"

"It seems so. He was avoiding him since we came here. Mr. T is still angry."

"And with good reason," came a gruffly response.

Lily turned around and blinked in surprise at the sight of Mr. T in a business suit. Mr. T was a man in his mid sixties and the owner of the inn for the last thirty years.

"Ahhh, Angel voice," he beamed at her and took both her hands in his. "Now this is definitely a pleasant surprise," he took a step back and stood in his full height of 6 feet. He straightened an invisible wrinkle on his shoulder and gave her a charming smile, "So what do you think? How do I look?"

"Very handsome," Lily answered, amused at his visible enthusiasm. Lily didn't have a trouble to imagine Mr. T as a young bachelor who charms beautiful women.

He looked pleased at her answer, "Good. I've got important business tonight. I want to look official. You perform tonight, of course." It wasn't even a question, but an obvious statement.

Lily smiled amused, "Maybe." She then paused and shrugged, "Or maybe not."

Mr. T looked at her with a little annoyance, though the whole sight was destroyed a little by the softness in his eyes. He put his hand over his heart and looked as if he in grave pain. "Please don't say it even as a joke, m'dear. Do not forget my poor weak heart," his hand dropped to his side and he glanced around the club with a frown as if searching for something. "You haven't seen the useless grandson of mine, have you?"

Lily shook her head, "Sorry."

"Well, if you would happen to stumble upon him, do remind him that his whole money and possessions are in my hands. So he better show his face soon, before I send him to Hogwarts tomorrow with only his underwear on."

Lily stifled her laughter back and nodded in comprehension, "Sure thing."

Mr. T took her hand and kissed it in a gentlemanlike way and sent her another charming smile, "You can order whatever you like of course. The food and drinks are on the house."

"'The food and drinks are on the house,'" mimicked Robin when Mr. T was seemingly out of earshot. "What else is expected when you flirting with the owner of the whole bloody club? A free room and champagne in bed?" she glared at Lily with unhidden envy.

Lily frowned in thoughtfulness, "But I don't like champagne."

Robin stared at her for a moment and then burst in laughter, "It's the principle of the things Angel."

"Robin?" Mr. T's soft call made her jerk in her chair.

She gulped nervously and smiled at him, "Yes, Mr. T?"

His smile was cool and dangerous at the same time, "Don't forget to pay your debts tonight. I don't imagine that you thought you'll get away from paying it just because you're heading back to school tomorrow."

"Of course not," she sent him a fake calm smile. Then she coughed slightly and asked in an innocent voice, "And just speaking hypothetically, what if I didn't bring the money. then what?"

His smile seemed to widen in satisfaction, "Then, hypothetically, I have an empty place in dish washing."

Robin sighed and muttered quietly, "You mean old man…"

"I heard that," he called behind his back.

Robin groaned and put her forehead on the table, "Does anyone have 120 galleons to loan me?" she asked desperately.

"120? How come you owe him 120?" Ashley asked in half anger and half shock.

"Well," Robin raised her head back up and frowned. "There were always those 'free' meals I sneaked from his kitchens and of course there was that one time when I booked a room for the night-" she suddenly coughed loudly. "Well, you get the picture."

"You booked a room here for the night?" Ashley said slowly, anger dripping in each word. "For what reason?"

"Err…" Robin looked uncomfortable under her sisters' gaze. She locked her eyes with Lily and sent a silent prayer for help. Lily shook her head in a hopeless manner. Robin coughed again and tried to decide how much to reveal from the truth. "You see, there was this really cute guy…"

"A cute guy? You're only sixteen for Christ sake!"

"That's totally beside the point," she smiled innocently. "The guy thought that I was four years older anyway. And he was really _really_ cute…"

"I don't care how cute he was. I repeat. You're only _sixteen._"

"So?" Robin crossed her arms under her chest in annoyance "Lily is seventeen and you two," she motioned her head towards Janet's direction. "Advise her always to go and sleep with some random stranger. So how come I'm not allowed to do just that?"

"Because you're my baby-sister and I don't want to even think that you lost your virginity to some guy."

"Don't worry about it" Robin smirked "I didn't lose my virginity to him. I wasn't even a vir-"

"You know we should catch the boys and get on stage instead of standing and fighting here," interrupted Lily.

"Angel is right," Janet jumped to her feet and almost dragged Ashley behind her.

Lily sent a warning glance towards Robin, "You're digging your own grave you know. In this rate Ashley will probably lock you in some convent in the summers."

Robin just laughed, "I want to see her try." She stretched her arms aside and sighed, "I'll meet you on stage later. Our band suppose to perform in ten minutes."

Lily smiled and clapped her hand on Robin's shoulder, "Good luck."

She watched the customers in interest and the empty stage where different colorful lights danced on it. Without any warning she was suddenly picked up by her waist from behind and spanned around in circle. Lily gasped for breath when she was back on her feet and she spun around in anger just to be met with a handsome tall seventeen year boy with light brown hair and deep dark chocolate eyes.

Her eyes widened in shock before she burst in laughter. "Kyle!" she called happily and hugged him around his neck. "Where have you been the whole summer?"

Kyle smiled in her hair and hugged her back just as fiercely, "Missed you too Angel." He released her and looked at her from head to toe. "I see that you haven't changed a bit," he said quite pleased.

Lily smiled and punched him lightly in the arm, "And what did you expect to happen to me?"

"Who knows?" He shrugged, "Something horrible I guess."

Lily narrowed her eyes at him, "Are you angry with me?"

"Irritated is a better term for it," he put his hands in his pockets. "Considering the fact that I study with you at the same school for the last seven years, I don't know in which year you're in and in which house. I thought you trusted me."

Lily winced slightly at his accusing tone, "Of course I trust you. And you of all people should know why I don't tell you. If I'm suppose to keep a low profile at school I'm not suppose to be seen with you. Besides, I think you have enough information on me to guess who I am at school."

"Except the fact that your true name is Lily I don't know anything else that can help me. Do you know how many girls named Lily at school?"

"3?"

"7. And half of them are in much lower years. There're of course two in our year but there's absolutely no resemblance between you. So," he looked at her with a piercing gaze. "There are three options: one: you're studying under a different name, two: you're not studying in my year or three: you do not study at my school at all and just lied to me all along."

"Or four: you didn't look close enough," she suggested. "You know the cliché sentence: nothing is what it seems to be?"

Kyle frowned in thought, "You're not a Slytherin are you?"

Lily snorted and shook her head, "No."

"Oh well," he sighed. "I guess I'm gonna have to ask out all the single girls in our year."

"Ask out?" Lily repeated in disbelief, "What for?"

"To enlarge the possibility of finding you. I'll make a list of all the girls who refused and try to figure out which one of them is you."

Lily rolled her eyes and felt that it was time to change the subject, "Mr. T is looking for you, you know."

"I know," Kyle said gloomily. "I've heard what he told you. And from my experience with him, he meant every word."

"He's eating dinner with some clients so you don't have anything to worry about," she assured him.

"He's probably going to seal the new deal."

"What deal?"

Kyle looked at her surprised, "You don't know? He wants to open another inn at Hogsmeade."

"This year?"

"Yes, in another month or two he'll come to open it."

"Bloody hell," Lily muttered amazed. "That's great! We-"

At that moment Janet stepped on the stage and took the microphone in her hand.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the 'last day of summer' show-"

'Last day of summer' show?" Kyle muttered to Lily who only smiled.

"Just flow with it."

"And please give a hand to the 'Dragon Fliers'!"

"Dragon Fliers?" Lily yelled over the loud applause.

"Better than the 'Mourning Wolves', don't you think?" Kyle yelled back.

Lily laughed and put two fingers in her mouth to whistle aloud. Steve sat down near the drums twirling his sticks. Bred, and Robin with electric guitars stood in their regular place on the stage. Ashley stood next to Janet with a second microphone in hand. Lily caught their attention and gave them thumbs up.

Janet and Ashley glanced at each other and then looked back at Steve and nodded once. Immediately the club was filled with fast drumming and few seconds later Robin and Bred joined in.

"Want to dance?" Kyle asked.

"Always," Lily smiled back and he leaded her towards the empty dance floor.

_I can't sit here while I go nowhere  
Chase my dreams through the polluted air_

_Walking on a wire, running out of time _

_There's no room in this ol' heart of mine_

_Bill collectors waiting down the hall  
Neighbors scream and crack the bedroom wall _

_Nerves jump off the pavement, passion hits the street _

_Angels cookin' in the city heat _

People started to join Kyle and Lily as the song was speeding up, Janet and Ashley sang and danced on the stage.

_World's too crazy, I can't take no more _

_I won't stay here locked behind the door _

_Baby, stir it up, got to break it up now  
When I think about tomorrow, ooh, I can't wait to  
Stir it, got to shake it up now  
If I have to beg or borrow, I'm not gonna take it anymore, mmm, mmm _

_Hungry minds do stare you in the eyes  
Spread it thick and lay the biggest lies  
Don't say what you feel, must play hard to get  
All those time bombs tickin' in your head_

_So much pressure to keep holdin' on  
Pack my clothes up, baby, I'll be gone_

_I've got to stir it up, got to break it up now  
When I think about tomorrow, ooh, I can't wait to  
Stir it, got to shake it up now  
If I have to beg or borrow, I'm not gonna take it anymore, mmm, mmm _

Kyle twirled her around and let her go. She winked at him and they both went to different tables to try to convince other people to join on the dance floor.

Lily danced from one table to another, smiling and greeting the people she recognized. She came to the bar where only few couples were sitting and watching the performance.

"Reuben!" she signaled to the barman.

Reuben smiled when he noticed who it was and leaned closer so she could hear him, "What can I get you?"

She shook her head. "No drink," she answered. "Derek?"

Reuben pointed at the end of the bar where two figures sat one next to each other their heads close. Lily nodded and planted a quick kiss on Reuben's cheek.

"Nice to see you again," she smiled at him.

"Derek!" she yelled aloud in her friend's ear. Derek jumped startled but relaxed when he saw her.

"Flower!" He gave her a charming smile, "I wondered when you'd come around."

Lily glanced at his company and recognized the girl immediately, "Hi, Roxanne".

Roxanne greeted her back cheerfully and then put a folded paper in Derek's hand.

"Call me," she winked at him.

Lily rolled her eyes after Roxanne left.

"Don't you have anything better to do then distract the waitresses? You know that Mr. T hates it when you do it to his muggle employees."

Derek just shrugged and sipped his drink, "When are you up?"

"After this song," she looked at the stage where the band was playing their fourth song by now. She turned back to Derek, "C'mon." She tugged at his hand, "I don't want to lose you in the crowd."

Derek smiled in response, "Don't worry. I always prefer the first row when you perform."

Lily gave him an amused look, ignoring the heat that she felt suddenly rise to her cheeks. She left Derek near the stage and walked to the far side of it where Kyle was standing waiting for her.

"You ready?" he asked when the song was coming to an end.

"Like always," she smiled excitedly.

She saw the crowd cheering and felt the regular excitement and nervousness that she always felt before stepping on stage. She was used to perform in front of a crowd since she was little but each time felt like the first.

She took a steady deep breath and ignorant the little small pang of stage fright.

Janet and Ashley were the last to walk of the stage.

"Good luck, girl," Ashley smiled towards her a little out of breath.

"Thanks," Lily took another deep breath and climbed the stage with Kyle behind her.

She walked to the microphone and smiled when she heard the crowd start to clap again.

She turned to Kyle who sat in front of a piano. She covered the microphone with her hand and asked aloud, "Which song?"

"Whose turn is it to decide?" he asked.

"Yours."

"All right," Kyle smiled slightly. "Let's see… what do you think of this one?" his fingers started a pleasant tune.

Lily listened for a moment then her smile widened, "Sure, why not?"

Kyle fixed the microphone closer to his direction and put back his fingers on the keys. Lily nodded to signal him that she was ready. His fingers started to play again. The tune wasn't too fast or too slow, exactly what he felt like playing tonight.

_"Don't go breaking my heart," _he sang, smiling when he saw Lily giggling in response.

_  
I couldn't if I tried, _she sang back.

_Oh honey if I get restless, _his tone sounded playful

_Baby you're not that kind, _she shook her head in reproachful way.

_Don't go breaking my heart, _he sounded desperate

_You take the weight off me, _shespanned once in her place

_  
Oh Honey when you knock on my door, _he gave her a suggestive smile

_  
Ooh I gave you my key, _she winked in response

The crowd was clapping with the rhythm enjoying the playful teasing they saw between the two.

_Ooohhoo nobody knows it, _they sang together

_  
But when I was down,_ he sang

_  
I was your clown, _she bowed slightly in his direction

_  
Ooohhoo nobody knows it, _they sang

_  
Right from the start, _he nodded towards her

_  
I gave you my heart ,_Lily put her hand over her own heart and then pointed at him._ Ohh I gave you my heart_

_So don't go breaking my heart,_ he pleaded

_  
I won't go breaking your heart, _she put her elbows on the piano and shook her head slightly

_  
Don't go breaking my heart, _they smiled at each other

__

_And nobody told us, _he sang sadly.

_  
Cause nobody showed us, _she almost sighed the words

_  
And now it's up to us babe,_ he raised his eyebrow

_  
Oh I think we can make it, _she shrugged and rolled her eyes

_So don't misunderstand me, _he quickly took her hand and kissed it lightly to the audience loud cheers.

_  
You put the light in my life, _she nearly laughed but instead gave him a sharp look

_  
Oh you put the sparks to the flame, _he smiled innocently.

_  
I've got your heart in my sights, _she put her elbow on the piano and her chin in the palm.

Her leg was tapping the floor with the rhythm. He chuckled to himself and moved sideways on the stool and motioned towards the second half. Lily smiled gleefully and sat beside him.

The audience clapped louder now that the two were playing together on the keys.

_Ooohhoo nobody knows it _

_  
When I was down_

_  
I was your clown _

_  
Ooohhoo nobody knows it _

_  
Right from the start _

_  
I gave you my heart _

_ohho I gave you my heart _

It seemed that the game between Kyle and Lily was still continuing. Kyle released his right hand and put it around Lily to play on higher octave. Lily quickly filled his place without missing a beat. But the change in hand places caused her to almost sit on Kyle's lap.

_ Don't go breaking my heart_

_  
I won't go breaking your heart. _

_  
Don't go breaking my heart _

Kyle pretended to not notice the glare Lily sent him when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his ankle. He continued to sing with a smile, but the short kick Lily sent him did its trick and he was back playing on his side of the seat.

They exchanged looks and amused smiles when they repeated the chorus one more time. In a mutual agreement they sang with all their energy they possessed. When the last lyrics were fading away, Lily couldn't hear anything but the cheers and the loud claps. She stood up with Kyle and they both bowed deeply.

-

Lily hummed to herself while she skipped down the street. She turned around and continued to jump in place. "C'mon Derek, we're almost home. One more house to go."

"Hold on," he ran towards her. "How can you still stand? You were dancing and singing till now. And I can barely keep my eyes open." He yawned as if to prove his point.

"It's only three in the morning," she protested. "And besides it's only the adrenaline. All I need to do is to wait until it'll fade," she smiled teasingly. "And I thought you're in shape Mr. Auror-in-training."

"Don't start," he warned her.

Lily only chuckled softly, "All right Mr. grouchy. I'll see you in the morning."

She took her shoes off and ran the rest of the way home just because she felt like doing it. She opened the door and sprinted up the stairs jumping two steps in a time.

She opened the door to the attic and fell face forward on her bed. Erica and Richard never understood why she wanted to live in the attic of all the rooms she could choose from in the house. But the only answer was that she always liked living in attics because it was the highest place and there was always the privilege of sitting on the roof during the dawn and watching the sunrise.

She sighed quietly and rolled to the other side of the bed. When her parents were still alive, her father usually sat with her on the roof to gaze at the stars with her and to tell her favorite story of a princess, a pianist and a deep love. Usually she fell asleep without hearing the end of that story.

Even now, Lily could almost hear his deep soothing voice speaking quietly in her ear _'once upon a time, there was a very beautiful princess with red hair and sparkling emerald eyes in a far away kingdom….'_ without realizing it she fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

A/N: wow... that was... long... hope you liked it! Unfortunately i won't be able to update again in several monthes because of exams and so on. Really sorry guys!

Please REVIEW!

-Lilytero


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